It's AJ's World and We're Living In It

Craig, Chris, and Raphie on the Sunday after the post-deadline Padres assemble to win a series against the Cardinals and begin their race to the finish. They talk about AJ Preller's approach to team building before recapping this series and looking ahead.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Padre's hot Tub is a supported by the Listener's community,
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a point of fact, patrons have been streaming in for
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heated up, as the trades have rolled in, as the

(00:21):
deadline rolled by, and you can join the fastest growing
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Go to patreon dot com slash Padres hot Tub, p
A t r o n dot com slash Padres hot Tub.
As we did a deadline show in front of well
over one hundred and fifty patrons, been doing postgame shows after.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
All the wins.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
One of the comments that keeps coming back to us
from the community is I've been on a lot of boards.
I've been on Reddit boards, I've been on Twitter, I've
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Speaker 2 (00:58):
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I don't agree with everybody every single day, but this
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Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah. I mean there was a longtime guy who I've
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our neighborhood in the Discord the other day and he
was like, I like Chris Craig and Rafie. You know,
they give us thought provoking content and that's nice. But
why I am a patron and where my value comes

(01:34):
from is the community and getting to hear different voices,
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Speaker 2 (01:55):
Baby.

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Yeah. And I mean the reason it self selects is simple.
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(02:17):
Like no, it's all people who want to be here,
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Speaker 2 (02:26):
Patreon dot com slash pod.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Padre says, everybody Braguel stick Chris read Ray can't fact.
We need post deadline aition host two out of three
against the Cardinals edition recording on Sunday, August third, twoenty
twenty five. We're gonna go back to the deadline a
little bit, a couple of abridged thoughts if you didn't
go through our two hour trade deadline extravaganza. We'll look

(03:17):
at the balance of power in the National League. We'll
look at the Cardinals series. We'll look at our newly
named five Finger Death Punch Bullpen and how that's starting
to settle in. We'll look ahead to the schedule this week.
That's what's going on on this episode of Padres Hot Tub.
Couple of very very quick housekeeping notes. If you happen

(03:39):
to be a Padres Hot Tub patron and you're looking
for banter and no banter again this week. But there's
a reason this time, not just us not wanting to
do it. We like to do banter. It's not that
we don't want to do banter, but we haven't done
it the last couple weeks. However, three new pods of
Ever replacement episodes coming out. They're back Holy cal Rafee
and John back from Hibernation. Trade deadline shook Pracoda out

(04:03):
of his office. He opened up office hours, not Rafie.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, well Prakoda, for folks who don't know, just had
a baby and he's also doing a surgery rotation right
now on his med school. So I was very honored
that he would be willing to spend his one off
day a week talking with me about the Padre's trade deadline,
which we did, and we did so much so that

(04:27):
we actually decided to split our conversation into three episodes
because instead of releasing one almost three hour long show, so,
which is what we did all morning this morning, and
we just had I love talking to John so much.
He just completely challenges me in the way that I
think about these players and this team. And you know,

(04:49):
we talked about a lot plus this and minus is
about this deadline. But I think we both kind of
came away just like really excited and flabbergasted about what
happened on Thursday, and what could happen for the Padres
this year?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Second piece of housekeeping.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
It always does seem to happen around trade deadline and
around Padres winning streaks. But we've had a giant influx
of new patrons to patreon dot com slash Padres hot Tub,
and Chris has the magic mirror out to say hi
to some new friends.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yes, I want to thank you all by name, because
we very much appreciate it. We hope you holler at
us in the discord, whether it's staying in the Padres
channel or or hashtag new to the Tub. Wherever you
find us, say hello in the discord after we say
hello to you right now, Hello, Tony, Hello, Michael, Hello,

(05:46):
to Fitty, Hello, Ron, Hello, Keegan, Hello, Peter, Hello, Scotland,
Andy Russell, Brian Gordon, meet Meat. I think that might
be the same. I'm saying the thing first.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
Downtown, Damon, Sarah, David, Jay White, Holland, Jake, Kyle, Reid, Parker, Cruz, Ryan, Micah.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Sherman, Padres, Scott, Sean and Carlos.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
If you put it on the teleprompter, Ron.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Will read it.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Welcome to the hot Tub, everybody.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
Meat and meat both. Then it will be a battle
for premacy. Careful on that corner of the discord. The
meat channel is going to be one of.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Of actual discord. But we digress. Thanks everybody for being there.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
It is so fun to see just the community poppin'
and padres fans popping and everybody excited.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
And this is a result of what aj.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Preller did, which was once again, once again find a
way to replenish his battery and restock his farm system
with enough chips to be able to assemble the points
necessary to get all the things he wanted I thought,

(07:19):
in particularly the Baltimore Trained, which was entirely comprised of
players he drafted a year earlier, Like come on, that's the.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Definition of his renewable resource.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Like he drafted some dudes this year, so next year
those guys might be right out the door. But what
he has figured out is multiple things, but the one
he's exploiting every year, guys, is the ability to create
buzz in his minor league system in the levels double

(07:53):
A and below that get other gms dreaming on his
players and saying, well, this guy might turn out to
be a boat.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
And as a result, he's able to execute these traits.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Obviously there's going to be somebody out of the group
devrees or multiples that wind up being excellent players in
Major League Baseball, and yet he finds the way every
year to do it.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah. I mean, one of the things when John and
I were researching podsbut Replacement was I was going back
through how Fangrafts values prospects based on their future value
assignment ranking, so you know where they are on the
twenty eighty scale, so to speak, and I came across
this article from twenty eighteen that basically said that for

(08:43):
position players who are given a fifty future value ranking,
half of those guys bust half and that's a fifty
future value is a great prospect. I don't think that
the padres outside of Ethan Sallas have a fifty future
value prospect remaining in their farm system after this, So
you think about Ethan Sallas being the only one above

(09:05):
the fifty future value threshold, and fifty future value is
the fifty to fifty watermark for whether prospects going to
bust or not is quite significant, And so do I
think that one of the guys on the in the
six pack of prospects that were traded to Baltimore will
pan out. Probably one of those guys will be in

(09:25):
the major leagues, probably, you know, a good chance on
one of them turns out to be something good. But
for the other five they might not turn into anything.
You know, even when you get as high as a
sixty future value prospect, which is what a lot of
town evaluators had at Lao Derees that has a bus
rate of almost thirty percent, like where those guys don't

(09:48):
even make it to the major leagues. A bust is
defined as anyone who generates less than one war in
their career. Yeah, so thirty percent on someone as rated
as high as Leo de frees is quite remarkable. And
so I think again, like AJ is a bird in

(10:08):
the hand is worth two in the bush is AJ's motto,
you know what I mean. And so for you know,
with Loreano and o'haran, he got two birds and they're
six in the bush that are back in Baltimore, six
in the Chesapeake Bay. They're gonna have some nice old
bay seasoning and you know, will be some tasty crab
cakes or something in twenty twenty eight. But for now,

(10:29):
they're still swimming down there. So I'm gonna shut up
with this metaphors. It's not worth it anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Chris really handles the nautical metaphors more of the Bay
side metaphors.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
It's all right, you're you're welcome to slide into my
department anytime, refe especially if it gets me thinking about
crab cakes. It's it's pretty great canature value. Nice Ramone
Loreano hitting Appo Taco shots against the Cardinals today, winning
a series against the Cardinals. That's better, man, And I

(11:03):
was doing the same thing, right if you're just kind
of going back on fangrafts over old trades and the
sheer volume of guys that AJ has seen dealt, and
you know, sometimes they come back to us, like Jackson
Wolf or whatnot, but a lot of the times they don't,
and then you literally never hear their names again. By contrast,

(11:27):
there are dudes who have created a Padres lineup that
is as deep as any of the division favorites that
are currently in Major League Baseball and supplemented a bullpen
that was already the best in the game. So a
lot to feel good about the twenty twenty five Padres,

(11:50):
especially getting to see kind of the results of the
moves the past few days.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
You know, something kind of went through my mind the
other day, And I'm not gonna dive into somebody else's discussion,
but when the idea is brought up, and it's brought
up in our discord as well, So not often, but
it is, So that's the direction I'll go with it that. Like, boy,
you know, wouldn't it be something if we graduated some

(12:18):
of our prospects instead of constantly turning them into trade churn.
What if we had a team built out of our
minor league system. Wouldn't we be potentially competitive and affordable
at the same time with more flexibility. I see this
stuff the contrarian, you know, hedging on Preller's approach, because

(12:40):
Preller's approach is well established now, that's just never gonna happen.
As Rafie said on our Trade Deadline show, unless you're
a projectable All Star.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
He doesn't care.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
And if you are a projectable All Star, he'll still
use you if he can go get another All Star
and control that person for four years and know that
person's number. A lah Mason Miller. Mason Miller, he has
a really, really good idea of what Mason Miller is
going to do the next five years.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
He doesn't know what Leo Difrize is gonna do. Might
be this, might be that.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
But this is something I thought about and and just
wanted to bounce off the wall like a racketball at
you guys. Which was Wave zero? Remember Waves of Prospects?
Oh yeah, remember that Waves of Prospects.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
I remember THEE wave.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Think that's actually my point, because the waves were coming
and like Gore was supposed to I think, be maybe
the crest of the first wave, but before that came
wave zero, and Waves zero was Manny Margo and Hunter
Renfro and Carlos swahe right.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And there's there was somebody else in that group too.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Oh how dare you forget Austin Hedges?

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Austin absolutely absolutely, And I swear to you guys, I
have this thought. It's it's a narrative, so it's probably wrong.
But if I was writing the the Moneyball, but it's
a J Preller movie script, like I kind of feel
like from twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen he actually thought,

(14:17):
I'm gonna build a minor league engine that's gonna supply
that's gonna just supply wave after wave of talent to
this team, and we're gonna build a championship team that way.
And then he saw his first wave and every one
of those guys had big time hype, had just had hype.
Marco big time hype, as Suae, Oh slick glove, great bat,

(14:38):
you know all Jenkowski right like, they sucked. The team lost.
It was bad, it was boring, it was it was
it was feeble, it was flaccid.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
The team was not good.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
And you're like, oh, well, you know, give him three
four years, maybe they'll develop into something really that He's like,
fuck that. What if we traded them all and got
players in here that'll help me win? What if I
trade Luis Patino and Blake Hunt and everything else, Just
go get Blake Snow. You know what if I trade

(15:15):
all these guys, Just go trade Owen Cassie and all
these guys and just go get you darbish, Just go
get Joe Muscrove, Just go get all these guys, and
let's go win. Let's go play ball and win. And
that's what he's been doing every year from twenty twenty on.
And I do wonder if a Renfro Margo, a Sua

(15:36):
Hey Hedges led team won eighty five games, showed promise,
showed an ability to come together as a unit. If
he would have gone down the same road, or if
he was like, fuck this, we're signing Nanny Machado, We're
trading for.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Every veteran starter weekend and we're ready to go.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Well, I think also, Craig, it's worth even going back
further because before Wave zero, there was twenty fifteen when
he tried to supercharge and accelerate the rebuild and say
and basically do what he's doing now. The difference is
he didn't know how to build a roster then, and
he built an entirely right handed constructed lineup. You know, look,

(16:17):
we're not going to do that. We're not going to
rehash twenty fifteen at this point, but you guys were there,
you know what happened, and it sucked. And so it
almost feels like twenty fourteen into fifteen was like one
side of the you know, the spectrum, and then the
Wave zero twenty seventeen eighteen nineteen was like all the
way on the other side of the spectrum. And then

(16:39):
now it's just kind of slowly gotten to the middle
where now he's settled into like okay, like, yes, I
can do I can use these guys just as assets,
which was probably what his thinking was back in twenty fourteen.
That was probably his mindset. But he just didn't have
the gumption as a general manager yet to know how

(17:00):
to build a squad. And when he finally was able
to get those guys who did pan out, when he
was finally able to get Ron Fowler and then Peter
Sidler to open up their wallace and sign Manny Pachado
and extend Fernando Tazzis Junior and Jackson Merrill, et cetera.
We're not gonna talk about Zinderberguard Steel for now, but
but you know, you get the point. Like then he

(17:21):
was able to say, Okay, I've got my core. The
core is there, I have my all stars, my all
star ceilings are there. Now can I go out and
use these prospects as capital and basically bring my original
theory back into play. And I mean, like, look, his
inefficiency is he does outwork other general managers like he
just does. He's got his big gulp and his bucket

(17:43):
hat and his trash bag of shit that he drags
from Wisconsin backfield to some town a Dominican and back again,
and somehow sometimes it's at the Dennys and Encinitas after
pickup basketball, and that's his life. And I'm so dang
happy that that's my general manager because he's doing it.
He's doing it in a way that no one else
is doing it. And it's like, truly the trade deadline,

(18:05):
whatever you want to say, it's Aj Preller's world and
we're living in it, and the rest of baseball's living
in it. In their Winners and Losers article for Fangrafts,
Ben Clemens didn't put the Padres as a winner or loser.
He said force of nature, Aj Preller, That's it. And
I think it's it's perfect encapsulation.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Of it, you know, be it his work ethic or
natural talent or knack for whatever it is, or maybe
he's just gotten better in a decade on the job.
None of this happens unless other teams value AJ's scouting
ability correct and for a third or fourth year in

(18:44):
a row now we're seeing that they value what he
sees in players and that you know, a fourth round
pick by AJ Preller isn't held in the same esteem
as a fourth round pick by other guys. And I
understand fans wanting to be along with the journey for prospects.

(19:06):
I mean, you guys heard me on the Trade deadline show.
I was hit hard by Leo Dallas Devrees being shipped
to a different organization. I love buying into the story
of these people, not assets, not property or anything like that,
of these people, of these human beings. And like that,
dude had been with the Padres organization as a young

(19:28):
teenager and was playing for his favorite team. So I
understand fans disappointment with not getting to be along with
that ride until like the victory lap. I understand it completely.
But at the same time, like a lot of those folks,
that's like the baseball card world, that's like buying Bowman

(19:50):
prospect cards and hoping for them. And what AJ has
done is set a certain threshold of performance that you
need to have to be a starting nine of the Padres.
Now do I wish that threshold could be addressed a
little earlier in the season, like maybe in the off season,

(20:10):
so that you don't have to ship away the prospect
capital come to the trade deadline like that would be nice,
but it's not necessarily how reality works. And if you
want to be a fan of that type of team,
there's lots of teams out there that do nothing but
you know, operate on the margins of analytics and of

(20:34):
not spending money on their major league roster. Like there's
lots of places out there that will never ever spend
on a Xander Bogart's with a track record and maybe
overpay a little bit, but that's what the market dictates
for you to get a guy you can slot in
your starting nine for how many years and not question it.

(20:55):
And the Padres love to not question it. They're not
the Tigers. They're not playing the platoon splits, you know,
limiting guys from even getting exposure to having to face
their same side of arm. But at the end of
the day, like they have a starting nine that is
filled with dependable dudes like Jacob cronin Worth is hitting

(21:16):
eight on the San Diego Padres because of how aj
Preller built his team. And I understand folks being disappointed
with how it comes and not getting to see some stories,
you know, play out for the Padres, But you know what,
there's always new stories. Now we get to hurt root
for Ramon Loreano for a couple of years. Now we
get to root for Mason Miller, a dude who's a

(21:38):
true freak, who does things that no other human being
who has played baseball has ever done. And he's a
San Diego padre, and that excitement is real and that
story is real, and you know what, he being on
the team gives us a better chance to do that's
when and that's the point of the story. The point

(21:59):
of putting on these hats and putting on brown and
gold and walking around town is you want to watch
a winning team and you want to win a championship.
And I'm stoked that aj Preller is fully committed to that,
just like you, Rafe.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
And you know the other point that I feel like
just has to continue to be illustrated. Right this organization
plays rewind, erase the white point restart. For three decades,
for three decades working in San Diego sports talk media,

(22:37):
there have been certain things that we all accept as
the built in excuses of why San Diego cannot compete
with LA or other massive, you know, teams in whatever world.
Here's the one that when it was said to me,
is like, yeah, San Diego has the ocean to the left,
Mexico to the south, to the right desert, and to

(23:00):
the north Los Angeles. We're completely boxed in. There's no
room for growth. Take for example, the Rockies. They have
like eleven states that they draw fans from to come
to see the Colorado Rockies play. We don't even have
one hundred miles in any direction to draw fans in.
Not in any direction, not one hundred miles. We can't
do it. We don't have a television contract. Right We're

(23:26):
the sleepy city by the sea. We're a city of expatriots.
All of these things that have been said for years
and years. AJ Preller has turned this place into a
baseball town. He has turned San Diego into a hot bed.
The Padres draw as well as any team in Major

(23:47):
League Baseball now, which is something that when I moved
here in nineteen ninety was laughable, and in twenty fifteen
was laughable, and in twenty nineteen was laughable.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
And in twenty.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Twenty one we started coming out as a city when
Tatisse you know, was signed, and ever since then we
have supported the living hell out of this team. But
within all of that, AJ Preller hasn't had the opportunity

(24:18):
to build and cultivate his garden and see all of
his flowers grow and see what beauty he can create.
You know why, there's a fucking bear that tramples the
garden and destroys everything.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
And it's right up the road.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
And if you ask why doesn't he tell his garden better,
why doesn't he a better gardener, it's because he has
to fight off the bear. It's hard to keep a
garden with a bear around. And that's all.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Dragon, a dragon, to use the parlance of the man.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Sure, sure, My point is just like theo Epstein couldn't
slow build his Red Sox in the early two thousands
because the Yankees were spending twice as much as any
other team to get Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown and
every other player in the universe to come play for them. Thusly,
the Dodgers have broken the system. They're spending five hundred

(25:19):
million dollars this year with penalties on payroll. They spend
twice as much as any other team. They have broken
it all and we're trying to beat them every year,
and we're the team that they're the most scared of
of any team in Major League Baseball, So it's not
the same. It's a war footing, is what I'm saying.

(25:40):
For Aj Preley. He doesn't have the luxury of waiting
to see whether Leo Dallas Devrees becomes an All Star
player in twenty twenty eight because by then LA could
have won three more championships, you know, and the goal
is to win and to beat those fuckers. So I'm
deeply appreciative of this. I'm deeply appreciative of the fact

(26:03):
that this team is lined up for twenty twenty six.
This team makes sense for the next two years as
a straight championship contender, and even when Cease and Suarez
and a Rise depart at the end of the year,
this team is set up as a championship contender in

(26:23):
twenty twenty six. And as long as you keep AJ
Preller long, I'm pretty sure that every year he's going
to make the adjustments to keep this team in the fight.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, and I mean it's almost like mutually a short
destruction thing that Preller has constructed with the Padres organization,
because if they get rid of him, guess what they're
going to have Many Machado and Xander Bogart's aging into
their late thirties, paying them a combined sixty five million
dollars a year, and they're not going to have the

(26:58):
person who's going to be able to get the renewable
prospects to keep the battery running that's being taxed at
that level. And so it's kind of like the like,
you know, I'm not stuck in here with you, you're
stuck in here with me, sort of a situation with
Freller where it's like he is that force of nature
even within the organization, he's dictating the terms of you know,

(27:20):
he's you know, constructed a machine that only he knows
how to run in some way.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
And that's a great point.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
I don't know, but it's kind of fun, like I mean,
and just to your point, Craig about twenty twenty eight,
which is probably not even when when Leo Dallas Derees
is going to be good or peaking, like it's probably
gonna be when he debuts, you know, maybe twenty seven.
Just as a reminder for folks, in twenty twenty eight,
Lao DeVries is going to be twenty one years old,

(27:48):
you know, and to be frank, I don't know, like
twenty twenty nine, twenty thirty, when Layo really is going
to make an impact. You know, who's to say what
happens between now and then. But the Padres are going
to be paying a lot of money to a lot
of guys who are going to be older, and I
don't know what the state of the franchise is going
to be. And I hesitate to use the word window,

(28:10):
but I do want to. But I will say that
the next three to four years I think are when
the current Padres as constructed now, are constructed to be
built to win. So whatever you can do to maximize that,
you know, that's good for the team. AJ could do something.
There's plenty of time. Five years from now, AJ could

(28:33):
do something. There's going to be a new collective bargaining agreement.
We don't even know what baseball is going to look
like in three years, but true, I think this team
is built to be good from now through twenty twenty eight,
and you know, after that, who's to say, we'll be
in the disputed lands, as we like to say on
the show.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Hopefully AJ gets the security that he's not going anywhere
for a while. His contract is up after next year,
correct to if I'm not wrong, his extension that is
correct twenty six and hopefully he gets the security needed
to maintain a five year plan for the club and
make the adjustments that he's going to need to do.

(29:15):
The club traded away about fourteen million dollars in prospects
just to avoid paying their new additions this this trade deadline,
in the form of five million for Nestor Cortez, five
and a half for Ryan O'Hearn, and nearly three million
for Ramon Loriano. I don't know what that means for

(29:39):
twenty twenty six in terms of their willingness to financially
commit to the championship team. And if AJ is forced
to go bargain bin shopping again in the off season,
and you know, not able, not able to fill whatever
hole Luisa riz is going to leave because Ryan or

(30:01):
hearn is also leaving, or fill whatever whole Dylan Ceci
Michael King might leave. That this trade the deadline doesn't
make me optimistic for that. But what it makes me
optimistic for is that AJ deserves an extension. He deserves
to be woven into the fabric, fabric of the Padres

(30:23):
even more.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Listen, I just feel very strongly about one thing, well,
many things, But this thing I.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Feel strongly about.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Twenty twenty three was a dying man's last hurrah.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Come on, let's hold on on that. No, whoa WHOA
man like Schiel Seidler has said publicly that his demise
was unexpected. Let's let's not make that assumption. Please, Like,
we don't know the state of Peter Sidler's health. We
know he died of you know, some sort of effection infection,
and we know his health wasn't good, But let's not

(31:05):
jump to that big of a generality. I think that's
that's that's narrative building on our Oh okay.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
I don't know. I don't have a problem with it, But.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
I don't personally trust Sheild Sidler's words. I think she's
built as many narratives as anybody.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
True fair.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
The point I'm driving at is this, In twenty twenty three,
the Padres payroll was around two hundred and sixty million dollars.
That's that may happen again in an inflationary time ten
or eleven years from now. When when that is cost

(31:49):
When when that's when that's the price of the eighth
or tenth best payroll in baseball?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
You know?

Speaker 1 (31:55):
So I'm not going to say that's never going to
happen again, because it's silly. If you go back and
look at what the Yankees payroll was in two thousand
and three, you know, and then you're like, whoa, but
that was two times as much as anybody else. Everything's
always proportional. But I don't think the Padres ever again
will be spending at the level of Los Angeles like

(32:18):
they did in twenty twenty three. And whether that was
a dying man's last wish to try and super jump
his team, or it was a business plan that was
designed to superinflate the payroll for a very short and
defined period of time in order to get the virtuous

(32:42):
cycle rolling before it gets paired back. I just as
much as I really appreciated it, And when you got
to it, Chris, I thought it was a compelling argument,
the argument of if you paid Tanner Scott fifty five
million dollars in the off season, you don't trade Leo

(33:04):
DeVries at the deadline. However, you get Tanner Scott, you
don't get Mason Miller. Mason Miller greater than Tanner Scott,
who's injured and has had a bad year it's had
a bad year, like he would have hurt the Padres
if he was on the team this year. Now, we
wouldn't have known that. But that's a compelling argument. That's

(33:25):
an argument I can accept. I just believe that when
Pedro said I'm going to speak from the grave, his
voice is those contracts. It's Machado's extension, it's Boguard's deal,
it's Cronanworth's deal, it's Merrill's deal, it's used deal, it's

(33:47):
all of those deals that put the Padres at Well,
you've got this team, and you're in one hundred and
ninety five million dollars, and now you've got to fill
these six slots.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
And that's the world.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
I'm willing to live in throughout the remainder of these contracts,
because I can see that Aj Preller has proven year
after year he is a droit, he is dextrous, and
he has the ability to maneuver around these gigantic contracts
and find Sometimes it's a bargain bin failure, sometimes it's

(34:18):
a bargain bin success.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
He has to fix it along the way.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
His teams in April are never as good as his
teams in August, but I now trust this guy to
the point that would I would actually say that this
offseason a la Rubin Niebla, the number one priority of
the Padres should be to lock in aj Preller through
two thousand and thirty four and to make sure that
this brilliant baseball mind continues to mind this store.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, that's all fair, Craig, And I think, just real
quick to just give I align with the narrative that
the Padres see the opportunity of being the ticket in
town and wanted to invest in it because they saw
how the stadium got filled with manny and tatties, and

(35:08):
that it was a moment that investing in the city,
investing in the fans, investing in a winning team could
build them something that lasts a generation. Like there are
kids in other cities wearing Nando jerseys right now, and
if you let's round San Diego, all the kids are
wearing them. So I feel like it's more of a

(35:28):
business than the narrative. But the idea that Tanner Scott
would have performed the same as he is with the Dodgers,
you know, they just have they just like, go ahead, Rafie,

(35:51):
make your point. I've lost mine.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
No, I was just gonna say I was getting almost emotional.
Herring Craig talk about it, like.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Just of.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
AJ being this sort of I don't know he's thinking.
I was explaining all of this, like, because I had
done three hours of podcasting this morning, I was explaining
all of this to my wife, and like, I ended
up doing the whole narrative, and she was very patient

(36:23):
and she listened to me, and she was was all, like,
she's very interested, and I like went back and I
talked about twenty fourteen and the Asuai way, Like I
had this whole conversation on a hike today and I
talked about it in the context of Moneyball, in the
context of taking ingrained systems, and because that's what that

(36:43):
movie is about. It's not about baseball, it's about economics,
and it's about fighting against institutional knowledge. And in a way,
I again I don't want to deify this man who
I think is has shown that he has flaws, and
certainly there's been a lot of fighting about there being
a yes man culture inside of the front office and

(37:05):
like etcetera. I'm not trying to say this is perfect,
but in terms of fighting against the institutional knowledge that
basically he's fighting against moneyball. Like it's now twenty years
on and it's swung so far in the direction where
now it's like prospects are king, Prospects are god because
we because prospects are economic rent is it is value

(37:26):
that we can extract. And that's actually what baseball is about.
And AJ is almost saying like actually, like yes, and
baseball is about winning games. And if baseball's about winning
games today, not winning games three years from now. And
you know, look, that's not how you should spend money.
That's not how you should spend credit card. And I

(37:47):
think that that's part of the problem with baseball now
is that baseball does treat these people as money. Baseball
does treat these people they they're think like we as
a baseball culture, think about everything now in dollars. And
there was a time where that was revolutionary and that
was kind of like changing the way people thought, and
there was there was a market inefficiency to take advantage

(38:08):
of now, but now it's like almost the marketing efficiency
is like treating these these these prospects as as people
and treating these star players as people and thinking about
them in that context of them being human human beings
and and and what I mean by that is prospects

(38:29):
are human beings, and that they are fallible. They don't
always pan out like you like they they don't always
work out and you and you have to really reckon
with that instead of hugging them in order to then
open up the possibilities of then the other side of humanity,
which is exceptional, like like truly exceptional talent, truly exceptional

(38:51):
human beings, and saying and looking at someone like Mason
Miller and saying that guy is rare. That guy does
not come around a lot. And I know you can
say the same thing about Leo Dallas Devrees, and one
day Leo Dallas Devrees, I am sure, is he? I mean, like, look,
actually I'm not sure because I just talk so about
this whole thing, talking about how thirty percent of prospects

(39:11):
at his rate bust. But Leio Dallas Divis has a
really good chance at being a guy, a guy that
someday a J Peler might want to trade for again.
But right now, he's a promise. He's it could be anything.
He could even be a boat, as you said, Craig,
whereas Mason Biller is a boat, right now, yes, you

(39:35):
Darvish is a boat, right, b boat? You know you
can say that for tons of guys who are on
the padres, and you can say it about any of
the Rhino Hearn or Ramon Loreano, et cetera, et cetera.
So it's like yes, like Leo Dallas Divis he's still
in the dry docks down in in in Barrio Logan,
all right. And Mason Miller he's fucking on his speedboat

(39:58):
with a bag of cocaine riding underneath the Cornado Bridge.
There's fucking dudes tubing and wakeboarding behind his boat. And
as like, I want to be on that boat. I
don't want to be in the dry docks. I want
to be on the boat.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Please stop using boat marathon metaphors.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
You don't know what dry docks are for good lord,
I mean Chris Lane.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
Now uh, I'm yeah, you're just in my lane talking
about boats and it makes no sense in the dry doctor.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
It up right back, right back towards the breakwater, Chrissy,
he wrote out toward the breakwater again.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Now I'm purposely gonna start getting things wrong. I'm gonna
be like, you know, the right side of the ship,
the port side and the left side the starboard fron
Chris explode.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
I I got back to where I was thinking, Craig,
and I'm torn between two lines of thought. Dude, I
remember the rock the payroll starting with a four, and
it's always going to start with a four. I remember
those days. The excuse is about the San Diego market
and what it could and couldn't support. And I see
what the Cardinals have done. You know, it took them

(41:14):
all of a year and a half of losing, and
their fan base evaporated and it stopped being the town
that it was. And I don't want San Diego to
end up like that, and I don't think it will
be will And that's all I go at is eventually
that will happen if your marquee talent gets traded away

(41:34):
year in and year out. But as the tweet said
that we talked about on the Trade Deadline show that
Rafie said, there's a bit of me that's an insepid
Creten because we have seen a j Re Phil the
bank account year in and year out with his talent,
and it just goes back to the same point.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
We've all made.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
The best thing that the Padres ownership group could do
to make anybody who's worried about, uh, the future six
years from now, which is kind of silly, but it's
built into all of us because we see where this
franchise could go is to extend AJ Prewler.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Can I just say one thing really quickly, and I
promise him the last thing about the deadline, which is
a boat. It is not about a boat. This is
this is about it's about a plane. I'm gonna do
aviation corner.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
We're built.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Ships. Those are airships. Ben Clemens made this point, uh
in his Winners and Losers slash Force of Nature article
about AJ Preller, and he basically said, by trading away
these guys, AJ has created open spots on all these
minor league rosters because he traded away a lot of guys.
We didn't trade away every guy he's drafted. And guess what,

(42:56):
some of those guys are gonna hit for a nine
hundred ops and four Wayne and they wouldn't have even
had the opportunity to do that. And you're gonna what
about this guy? You know, what about Brickney Bosworth or whatever?
You know? Oh Brickney Boseworth. Oh shit, this third the
Midwestern League fire, you know, and he'll be at Florida Marlin,

(43:18):
you know, or Miami Marlin whatever, uh, you know, by Christmas,
you know. And that's that's just another thing that like
it wasn't even possible before. So it's just I'm just
still flabbergasted by the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, I hear Exeter exem got three hits last night
in Lake Elsemore.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
My god, Scott Helium, kids on the rise.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Maybe a j secret is he just goes to like
the J. K. Rowling name generator and figures out which
prospect has the closest name to one of the raving
clause of lore and then just drafts that person. And
we can never know.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Boston Bateman, Cruise, school Craft. Come on, these are all
crisis actors.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
They always have to.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
Should we talk about the Padres.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, I mean we have kind of philosophically, just very
very briefly of all that everyone improved. I personally believe
that the six teams in playoff position are the six
teams that will make the playoffs in the National League.
I do not believe the Reds can catch any of them,

(44:32):
and there's no one else. Everyone else sold off unless
there's a crazy selloff and win twenty in a row
out of some team. I think these are the six teams.
I think all the teams improved. I kind of think
the Padres improved the most. But post deadline, who's the

(44:53):
NL team that you are most scared of?

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Now?

Speaker 3 (45:00):
H m.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
For me, it's still the Phillies.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
The Phillies.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Yeah, they did enough to fortify the bullpen, which was
kind of their question mark that you know they're lining up.
It's just like us.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
They have their dogs.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
You know, Schwarber's expiring this year, but he's built into
that team as much as anyone. And and Duran can
be filthy. He had had a little bit of a
you know, mixed year this year, but getting him and
they will get Jose Alvarado back, although not for the playoffs.

(45:47):
And just Zach Wheeler is a frigging stud and Rangers
sworez can can absolutely shut us down. They got Jesu
Lizardo in the off season. He's a wizard and Christopher Sanchez,
so like that rotation can be dominant. But just going
against them in the playoffs, you have as many roles

(46:09):
of the dice as you can. But their lineup is good,
the rotation is better than anyone's, and they did enough
in the bullpen to make me feel like they're now
the favorite.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
Yeah, it's so bizarre that I almost feel like this
is the first year that certainly I've been following the team,
and certainly the first years that we've been doing this,
where like the Dodgers don't scare me as much in
a seven game series as they do in a five
game series or in a wild card series, which I

(46:41):
don't even think that that's possible technically at this point.
And I guess if they got the three seed and
we got the six seed, like we could theoretically play
them in a wild card series, but because I just
think that the Dodgers, they are battered by injuries this year,
and their depth is which is what was always the

(47:03):
thing that they had against us, is just sort of evaporated.
And even last year, you know, like the Dodgers, like
they had to throw a bullpen game in Game four.
They did it brilliantly, but they were out of guys.
Like they didn't do that because they wanted to. They
it was out of necessity, and like, to me, like

(47:23):
Philadelphia is way scarier in a seven game series because
of the rotation, because they've shored up their bullpen stuff,
and that lineup is just relentless, like truly truly relentless.
If you look at it one through nine, you're like, oh,
I never get a break because you think about, like
the Padres lineup, Okay, like you got the ninth spot,

(47:45):
the catcher's always going to be in the ninth spot.
Mike Schultz just always gonna put them. Well, the Philly
is of JT. Real Muto in that spot, you know
what I mean, And he's not hitting nine. Like they've
got who's their center fielder, you go, ah, Rojas mah
Marsh will be in the in the nine hole, you
know what I mean. Like it's just like it just

(48:06):
doesn't stop. And you know, whereas the Padres have created
a team that I think is specifically built to beat
the Dodgers. I mean, that's part of the reason why
you create the five finger death punch in the bullpen
is saying, not right, I can deploy these guys every
time against the top of that order, every single time

(48:27):
it's going in latent games, it's gonna be Mason Miller
or Adrian Morrohane or Robert Suarez, you know, and that's
it Philly. With that depth, I don't know. I'm a
little freaked out. And that's also to say nothing about
the Mets, who I know we just saw. But the
Mets are a good team. And they did just chew

(48:48):
up all of the relievers in the National League. They
got Tyler Rogers, they got greg Orrisoto. They got someone
else too, Helsley, Right, they got Helsley. They got Helsley.
So you know, that's gonna be very scary, like they're
no walking the park together unless we forget the n
NOW Central teams. I mean, I got to go to
Wrigley Field and see the Cubs in July. Cubs are

(49:10):
good man, Cubs got some.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Thund a really good team. Yeah, they're a good team.
They're a really good team. Guys, it's a trick question,
do too much?

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yeah, what's your go ahead?

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Well, no, I was just gonna say, I asked you
a question, but it was a trick question. The answer
is always LA, and it'll always be LA. It's it's LA.
That's the team in front of us. That's always the
team in front of us. We can't lose can't lose
sight of that. I think the goal is to beat
them this month.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
The Yeah, I hope you're right.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
And and here's the reason why I would subscribe to
the theory. This is just the one thing. I'm not
disrespecting LA. This is my point. I'm not going to
put any other team above them yet, Okay, but I
am building a case against the twenty twenty five Dodgers.
And the case I'm building against the twenty twenty five
Dodgers is that they won the World's Championship and then

(50:04):
asked their two best players to do so much more.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
And I think the decision to make Mookie Bets a
full time shortstop.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Was just an error.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
I just think that was a huge mistake by LA.
And the fact that he's still hitting two forty at
the start of August. And I get it, he's Mookie Bets.
He's scary if we face him in the playoffs and
he's hit and he hit two forty for the whole
season with fourteen homers, I'm still gonna be nervous when
he's at the plate. But I'm gonna honestly think that

(50:37):
that wiry little fella is a bit worn down that
he's a bit guessed because he never had to do
this in his career before, and now he's doing it
into the big leagues similarly, but even more so, doing
what shoe hey Otani does is fucking impossible because no
one's ever done it for a reason, and now he's

(50:58):
rehabbened in big league games whilst keeping his at bats,
hurting himself with a cramp, cramp, whatever, and then still
staying in the game, striking out all over the place. Listen,
he's got almost forty home runs. No one's complaining about
shoe Heyo Tani's life, but I think when you've got
as small margins as exist in big league baseball, Freeman's

(51:22):
been bad for months. His ops has been six hundred
for over a month. You ask your number one and
number two guys, Hey, you know what you were great?

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Last year?

Speaker 1 (51:34):
You led us to a World Series. Now show hey,
you went fifty to fifty. How about you start pitching again?
Of course, he said, I'm gonna pitch, Mookie. We sent
you back to right field and we won.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
A World Series.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
We're putting you back at short because we're so smart
and you're so great. You're gonna be able to do it.
They haven't, not to say that they can't, not to
say that they won't, but they haven't. And with all
of that, the Dodgers are still what eighteen games over
five hundred, So there's still the team. To me, there's

(52:08):
still the team. They're they're not there's they're the team
until they lose. But they've asked so much of Bets
and Otani. I'm hoping chickens come home to roost in October.
What have we learned from the Cardinals series. Let's go
through it quickly. I was there Friday night. The vibes
were the vibes all weekend.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
We're just through the roof, through the roof.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Mason Miller coming in was sick. But Friday, Nick Pivetta
throwing seven set up the whole weekend. Honestly, I thought
it was going to be a sweep. Randy Vasquez, who
is now as we have found out, getting optioned out
for Nestor Cortez, you know, gave up before nothing lead.

(52:55):
In particular, he hung one curveball just horribly to Pedro Payaz.
Uh maybe his ugliest pitch of the season, to be honest.
Uh yeah, for a long three run homer that turned
that game completely around. Uh, and you know Cardinals come
up with a win. But then today Sunday, I think

(53:17):
this is the game I want to talk about because
the sometimes, guys, the best trade is the trade you
don't make, not trading.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
Dylan c oh Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Five innings, five innings, one hit, no walks, nine k's.
Maybe it was not no walks, but five innings, one hit,
no runs, nine k's. That's the Dylan Ceas you need.
And I do wonder. I just wonder if after everything
that happened, him getting the kind slip back, Hey you're here,

(53:56):
we believe in you, if that's the push he needs
for the last ten starts.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
I mean, bro did have noise about him getting traded
literally way before the season even started, and it never
fully went away. So these are people. I'm sure there's
a chance it got to him. And I will never
ever ever complain about Dylan Cees having ninety pitches in

(54:22):
nine strikeouts. You know, he can go five innings now
and it's not a problem at all if he's generating
as many swings and misses as he did today. I
thought I saw a stat that he is the only
pitcher on the Padres with four games where he induced
more than twenty swings and misses. Nobody else has done that.

(54:42):
That makes sense with the Padres starting pitching profile. You know,
hopefully it's just a new day for Dylan. We've said
it a couple of times this year because he has
turned in starts like this, But the Cardinals know him
by now pretty damn well, and he went out and
took care of business against them. My biggest takeaway is
the length.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Of the lineup. Man.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
It goes to what you were talking about, the Phillies
having Marsh bat nine. The Dodgers are all beat up,
so it's not quite the same with them right now.
But Freddy for me is going to turn in equality
at bat What a tremendous bunter. But Jake cronin Worth
batting eighth is just so so sexy. I mean, a

(55:24):
pitcher has to confront Jake Croninworth at eight because if
just the cold hand of probability gets into you and
you walk Freddy for me and you're facing Fernandow Tattist
junior and he's been an on base machine lately, but
the slug is always there. So Jake becomes a really
key at bat and it's eighth in the lineup. So yeah,

(55:47):
the trade not done of Dylan being on the team
could be huge. But every single day we're going to
see this long of a lineup from going now Ford
and that's really exciting.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting quick For me, thought
the most impressive thing I saw him do this weekend
was not bunting. It was not a nice line drive
single to the opposite field that he had when he
got on in the seventh inning, which started the whole
rally that ultimately put the game away. It's that when
Tatis came up the very next pitch, he went from

(56:20):
first to third, which is not something we've seen a
catcher do, and that actually enabled Fernando to go and
get a double because and leg it away, which which
if Diez or Maldonado is up there, Fernando's on first base,
and that's something that just having a somewhat athletic catcher

(56:41):
like just changes so much about the lineup. So yeah,
I mean, I thought the way they handled Dylan Sees
today was fantastic, and I think I don't want to
say it was a reaction to what happened with Randy Vasquez,
but Dylan Sees faced eighteen batters exactly today, and I

(57:01):
know that that was a clean break with five innings,
but he went twice through the order and then they
said hand it to five finger death punch until the
game briefly got out of hand and they let David
Morgan go and then it kind of came back in
and we'll talk about that in a second, but you
know what happened with Randy on on Saturday was they

(57:21):
let him go and face the first three or four
batters and the third time through the order and for.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
The first time in like a month and a half.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Yeah, and it was like a chorus flying a little
close to the sun where it was like, what are
we kind of again? It was like, what's the whole
point of building this little super pen if you're gonna
let Randy Vasquez face hitters third time through the order?
And the Padres paid for it, And yeah, Estrada wasn't
on his game last night, and like maybe we can
start talking about that where Estrada on Saturday and Morihone

(57:52):
today turned in just some straight up stinkers. They just
like weren't good outings. And my question for the two
of you is is that just, hey, it happens in
baseball Sometimes, what are you gonna do? Sometimes you don't
have it every day? Blah blah blah blah blah. Or
is it it's August third. We've ridden these guys for
four months straight and the signs of fatigue are there, concernometer.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
I guess I'm not gonna use that accent, the blah
blah blah accent, but I am gonna say Adrian moorehone
has been spotless for two months and that's not sustainable.
You know, the dude hasn't giving up an earned run
since the flowers were still a bloom in the hills
were green. I mean, they still might be wherever you are,

(58:36):
but you know, the birds were still chirping. Spring was
going on the last time Adrian Moore a hoone gave
up an earned run, so like it was gonna come up.
You know, that card is in the deck of being
a major league baseball player. Sure, we've we've talked about
it many times. You got to worry about them being
worn down. But the emergence of David Morgan, you know,

(58:59):
bring in that film Krate that we saw in the
minor leagues to the big league. Striking out the side
today a day after pitching two strong innings, and Mason
Miller like, I don't think we have to worry about
it as much as we did four days ago.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
I don't either, and I'm going to come down strongly
on one side of this. In fact, this would be
my takeaway from the building of the five finger death punch.
I think the biggest adjustment is going to be rest, because,
unlike the first four months of the season, the four
horsemen are now getting rest. Adrian Morejon's last outing was Tuesday,

(59:36):
so he had rested all week, and then he came
out there and pitched the ninth inning of a seven
to zero game, literally because they needed to give him
an inning. And you know what, he was completely off
his game today. His release point was off. He was
missing his pitches, and it looked straight up to me,
not like a tired pitcher. It looked like a pitcher

(59:58):
who wished he had thrown three times this week because
he lost his spot. When Estrada came in on Saturday,
he walked the first guy on four pitches. He hasn't
been working the number of outings that he has before.
Adam went almost a whole week in between outings before
he came in for the sixth inning today. And I'm

(01:00:20):
here to say this is a good thing. This is
a really, really good thing. It's just going to take
the horseman a minute to adjust to getting three or
four days rest as opposed to pitching every other day,
every other day for four months straight, which is basically
what they did except for the days that they pitch

(01:00:42):
back to back. So I think there's a little bit of,
you know, variability. If you don't see morohone for five
straight days and he comes in a seven to nothing game,
he might not look sharp. I think if they had
brought him in when it was two nothing, he might
it might have been a different story, but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
It is. You know, Mason Miller is used.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
To getting the call every time the a is get
a lead, which means twice a month. But nonetheless, like today,
he didn't pitch in a close game. You know, now
he's rested. Let's see Wednesday, Thursday, pitched Friday Saturday. He's
rested four out of five days. He could come out
tomorrow in Arizona and be too amped up, you know,

(01:01:26):
But this is a beautiful problem that Niebla will manage
over the course of the next two months, because I
guarantee fucking tee you in the playoffs, the five finger
death punch is rolling out every time the Padres have
a lead from the fourth inning onward.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Here mouth to God's ear, man, I really hope so,
but you know that was sick.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Wait to God right there, just what you said, your
lips to God. I thought about Suarez pointing up.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
No, I just I I. We actually talk about this
a good amount of pods of replacement, So I was
just kind of going back to that. Listen to pods
of replacement. They'll be dropping periodically throughout the week. Just
stay tuned on that. Yeah. The last thing I'll say is,
you know, Chris, you mentioned uh Loreano's Apo taco today
and it was just like, oh, yeah, that's a thing

(01:02:31):
that can happen. Now you can have a left fielder
who can selug five hundred. That's something we haven't had
in Sandy. I guess we had it, you know, briefly
with Jerks and Profile last year. But like, yeah, that's
just that's just a thing that regularly happens on a
lot of baseball teams that we've just been doing without
all year, and now that hole is plugged and he'll
be here next year too. So just I'm just so

(01:02:54):
stucked on this team. Cuts.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Yeah, you look at the line up now, dude, and
you know, earlier in the season you would look at
it and Jason Hayward was in there with a four
hundred ops. Martin Maldonado was in there with a four
hundred ops. And same with Martin Maldonado. They had fill ins.
And now the only guy sub seven hundred is Freddy
for me, and that's perfectly fine because you can have

(01:03:22):
one of those spots in your lineup. But now they
have four dudes who are slugging more than eight excuse me,
have an ops higher than eight hundred, including the slugging gods,
Ryan O'hearan Loreano. Manny had a rough day today. Manny
looked bad at the plate, and you weren't worried about it.

(01:03:45):
You know, Nando not looking completely comfortable at the plate,
but you're not worried about it because he's getting on base.
Nando cannot fall out of that leadoff spot. I've seen
that talk a lot, no matter what happens with the lineup.
He's got to be up top because his worst case,
his floor is a dude who can draw a walk
and then steal second base. And that's what you want

(01:04:06):
up top.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Yeah, I think it's what seven or eight straight games
the Fernando's drying to walk longest streak of his career,
and just keep at it, keep at it. No one
has to be the hero anymore. It's beautiful. You don't
have to go up there and go I'm Superman. If
I don't get a hit, we're not gonna score. Just
echoing what you said, Chris. Five hits out of the

(01:04:29):
seven to nine spot, couple homers out of those spots. Today,
that's how seven straight games the Padres have scored four
runs or more. And remember it was just like three
podcasts ago that I kept like on a three minute
egg timer saying into this mic. Half the games they've
scored three runs or fewer half the games. Well, now

(01:04:50):
seven straight games they went over that mark. Guess what
they won six out of seven. If they score seven
four runs are more than next seven games, they're gonna
win five or six out of seven. Like guaranteed this
team gets to four runs, they're gonna win like all
the time, which leads me to the week to come

(01:05:12):
at Arizona. The Diamondbacks, well, you know, they're just a
couple relievers away to have They just missed their ceiling.
So sorry, oh you did it to my boy. Yeah,
they've traded Naylor, They've traded Soarez. They're at this point.

(01:05:33):
It's more of I fear the snake's bite, like we
should go beat the snakes. They traded Kelly. Come on,
they gutted their team. We should go beat the snakes.
I only fear, like, you know, go down there. I
don't think we will. I think this team's on a roll.
I think it's time to go beat up on Arizona.
Win two or three out of three, and then you

(01:05:55):
come home to Boston. What a fascinating team Boston is.
Having traded Raphael Devers, they've got a better record since
the Giants have a worse record since they acquired Raphael Devers.
I don't know if Devers is the single driving force
behind both of those things, but Boston's a pretty good team.
I think it's going to be an interesting weekend at

(01:06:17):
Petco Park. I just love the direction this Padres team
is on. Right now, and I'm expecting good things. I'm
expecting four or five or six wins this week.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
Yeah, I kind of look at between the four or
five or six wins this week.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Yeah, we play three against Arizona, we played three against Boston.
That's six games, four and two. Think at least I accept.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
He's at least two except okay, well, okay, well let
me just I think that I would be thrilled with
foreign two. And also I'll say yes, so the Padre
is going four and two and that might be three
wins again at Arizona and a loss to Boston. Who's
to say? Uh and one win against Boston, who's to say?
I think of us looking up at the Dodgers and
me schedule watching the rest of the season, as I

(01:07:07):
don't know if you guys watch tennis, but like, basically,
the Dodgers held Serve this weekend, you know what I mean,
Like they won two out of three. Padres won two
out of three hold Serve. And the Padres are down
three breaks right now on the season, and they need
to break the Dodgers three times. And so that's gonna

(01:07:27):
be the Padres getting a sweep and the Dodgers winning
two out of one, or the Potter's winning two out
of one and the Dodgers, you know, losing two out
of three. So that's how I'm watching the rest of
the season. And then of course when they have two
series against the Dodgers, those are zero sum series. Someone's
gonna break someone else. So I haven't I'm not super

(01:07:51):
familiar with the Dodgers schedule. That's maybe something I could
be pulling up right now.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
But I started really know in Frona laid on me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
They got the Cardinals and the Blue Jays at home
this week, then they will take on the Angels, and
then it begins Padres Dodgers for three games in LA
the fifteenth to the seventeenth, and then Dodgers Padres for
three games here.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
In San Diego the twenty second through the twenty fourth.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Yeah, and they're gonna get exciting, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
Yeah, it is. Sorry, let me cut you off fire.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
No, No, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
I mean, it's just I'm completely in line with you, Rafee.
The next two weeks is just about can we pick
up a game hereer there against LA? Can we not
drop ground? Can we pick up a game here or
there and then get into the head to head, and
if you get into the head to head and you're
only two or one game out, all of a sudden

(01:08:58):
of four and two is enough to take the division lead.
And if you get out of the final two series
against LA with the lead and you can hold the
lead coming out of it, chance.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
To grow it. Podys have a beautiful schedule in September.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
I'm greedier than you, guys, man, I feel like this
is new season. I want to see new season energy
seven and zero energy. I want to see them set
their highest win streak of the year in the next
six weeks or so, and you know, why not start tomorrow.
I'm feeling very sure as the fellas. I'm feeling very
never lose again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
They're never going to lose again.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Like I know, that's how Padres fans feel watching every
game with this energy, and I want to see it
translate to the team, and I feel like it has
a good chance of doing so. And the next time
we face the Dodgers, you know, it is just we'll
be talking about it on our next show because there'll

(01:09:55):
be the weekend series. The week after next. They're driving
up North North County after a little series in San
Francisco against the Giants, and I want to be playing,
not just for the division. I want to be playing
for a two game cushion, a three game cushion in

(01:10:15):
the division. And with Tommy Edmund going on the il
Max months, he's coming back, but he hasn't been good.
The Dodgers are just super thin right now that the
you know, Freeman's hitting better, but Shohy left his last
start early. I just smell blood in the water man,

(01:10:35):
and I would love for the Padres to go into
September and October with the same exact energy they had
last year, but with the lessons learned, you know, and
you know that's got to start soon. I'm not saying
six and zero this week, but I'm right there with you, Craig.
I think four and two is where this team's got

(01:10:58):
to be, all.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Right, without anything else, let's go ahead and close up
the shop. Thanks to everybody Patreon dot com, slash Padres
hot tub our community continuing to grow and grow over
the last couple of weeks live post games after Padres wins,
So we're hoping to do six of them this coming week.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Let's see what happens. But be a part of it.
Tears Hey series tomorrow, boys, I'm all about JP series.
Wouldn't love him debuting in Arizona?

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
Yeah, you know, but he needs more time with Reuben.
Reuben will get a good look tomorrow. It'll be great.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
I'm excited, and I actually think Nestor Cortes could be
quite helpful to this team. You don't trade a monster
out of your roster like Brandon Lockridge and not expect.
You don't trade for Nestor Cortez and be like cool,
go to Triple A, Go hang out. Only have your
control for two months, but go hang out. We might

(01:12:02):
call you if we need you. No, you put them
in the rotation. You find out what's gonna happen. So
we're gonna find.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Out leadoff hitter for the best record in baseball, Brandon Lockridge.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
If they if Brandon Lockridge thousand ops's over the next month.
I'm convinced the Brewers have some sort of trash can
of Jason scheme that that they've implemented.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
Pat Murphy's got like a can't jar of chewing tobacco
with a censor in it. It's just like Tingles and sign.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Everybody's fits left its curve when.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
He fits right, Yeah, yeah, baby, sure, I'm throwing that
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Go grab your tinfoil. What's going on with the breweries.
What's going on with the brewers, what's going on up there?

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
I was Lockridge hitting for a thousand, Okay, great, George.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Yes, indeed, and come to our own conclusions.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Oh and we'll do it again later this week. But
until then, go Padre

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
The st