The Race For the West is On!

Craig and Chris come together to discuss a great week in Padres baseball, as the team took care of business against their NL West rivals and brought the race for the division to a dead heat with a month to play.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Padre's Hot Tub is a community supported podcast. In fact,
it's a podcast that's got its own community, and you
can be a part of it. All you have to
do is go to patreon dot com slash Padres hot Tub.
That's where you can join the Padres hot Tub community.
It'll get you ad free shows shows twelve hours before
they come out on the main feed. Also, by the way,

(00:23):
we're doing postgame shows for pretty much every win and
even a couple of losses along the way. So let's
just say by this point, if you had signed up
as a patron at the beginning of the season, you'd
have gotten about about ninety bonus shows beyond what you've
gotten in the regular feed, about ninety I don't have

(00:46):
the exact number, but about ninety. So we're putting in
a lot of work, a lot of time in this
very exciting Padres season, and if you want to get
more than a weekly hit, if you want your full fix,
place to go Chris is Patreon dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's certainly labor love, but an absolute blast this season
as the Padres continue to lift our spirits. Also should
be noted a fantastic community over on the Discord and
the only way to access our Discord server is to
become a supporter of the show. Lovely channels in there are.

(01:23):
Fantasy baseball season is really starting to come to the
head play state. Our playoffs will start in just two
weeks here in our seven division ladder league. Guess who's
guess who's on top of Sea division this year, Craig,
not you, I'm sure yeah, Daddy's got a seven game lead.

(01:46):
It's gonna go down. It's gonna go down because I
only won five this weeks. But lots of different things
over in the Discord. It's available to you, as are
the postgame shows. As are a whole wide variety of
benefits that you can check out for yourself over at
www dot patreon dot com. Backslash Padres hot Tub.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Welcome to the Padres Hot Tub, everybody. I'm Craig Elston.
That's Chris Reid. Rafie Kanter sends his regards from Grand Perry,
where he is away for the week, and I can't
wait to hear those stories about a week from now.
But the two of us are here your og two

(02:45):
point zeros to take you through an outstanding week of
Padres baseball.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Mister Reid Yeah, what would.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Rafie said?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Au revoir and we Lei and a boon voyage and
he is now enjoying the fromage and the some champagna and.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
All the good things out there. But we get to
enjoy a Padre series win over a couple of NL
West Division rivals.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Quick housekeeping. As mentioned, Rafie's on vacation. Chris will be
out on a trip midweek this week, So later this
week those postgame shows that we were talking about in
our Patreon ad will be held down by yours truly
next week tbd in terms of who I can find
to wrangle up on the show next to me as

(03:40):
these guys are gone for Labor Day weekend. New merch
available It was released last week Padres Hot Tub Mugs.
You can get yourself a Padre's Hot Tub coffee mug
that's got the Padre's Hot Tub logo on one side,
and on the other side it says baseball is stupid
and no one should watch. So tomorrow morning you could

(04:02):
drink your coffee looking at the baseball as stupid side,
and then when the Padres beat Seattle on Monday the
next morning, you could look at the hot tub side
and be like, yeah, yeah, so it's very you know,
it'll fit your mood no matter what. It'll also fit
your coffee or your tea or whatever else you want
to put in the mug. All you have to do
is go to padres hot tub dot com slash merch

(04:26):
this time. Don't go to Patreon this time. Go to
padres hot tub dot com, which is a real website
that exists, and click on the merch tab or do
slash merch and you can find the mugs. Chrispot one.
I bought one, so there's at least two sold, and no,
there's been plenty sold, but you'll want one for yourself.
It's a very nice mod, wouldn't you agree?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I do agree, And it's big. It's none of those
little joker clown mugs that filled, you know, like one
fluid cup. No, nobody drinks one fluid cup. We are
in the the over a dozen ounce club of caffeinated
beverage of your choice, so do check it out. It
is quite cool.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Last week, Chris, let's welcome in again world, over six
hundred members. Now let's welcome some new patrons.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, there may be some repeats in here, but I
don't care. We really appreciate all of you. Ernie, Ian
Casey of Casey's Craves, Casey Gardner, Old Buddy, Becca Friar,
Torment Chasin, Joshua and Dana. Thank you all for hopping
into the tub checking out the discord and yeah shout

(05:39):
out to Casey Craves on Instagram. Dude reviewing some Petco
Park food. How about them oysters? Craig mm.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Deckman's as Casey reviewed the oysters as.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, he did, and overall not a bad deal and
they were fresh and delicious, exactly what you would expect
from from a Deckman's joint.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
You know, if I ever do eat the first oyster
of my life, I think it will probably come from
Drew Deckman, because I think that's probably the only way
that I'll be able to convince myself beautifully. Like this
guy's won like six Michelin Stars or whatever, like I
should trust him when he puts something in front of me,

(06:23):
And if he puts an oyster in front of me,
maybe I'll try it. But I don't know, man, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Last thing, Last, but less but not least, if you
enjoy the show that we are doing, you might enjoy
some of the other shows that we do as well
across the Padres hot Tub network, including if you are
a fan of the television streaming universe, if you're somebody
who you know watches television shows, you might enjoy Crossing Streams,

(06:50):
which Chris and I have revived and we're ten episodes deep.
Yea in going through the latest things such as Alien
Earth Facebook such as yeah yikes, I thought those were
just Dodger fans, but it turned out something different. So anyways,
you can check out Crossing Streams. If you're a fan
of San Diego FC, which just clinched a playoff birth

(07:11):
in Major League Soccer. The co production of Padres Hot
Tub and San Diego Punto Football is a podcast called
Chromaniacs or The Cromaniacs, which myself, Tony Sanchez, and Alex
Pana host and you can check that out. So done,
done onto Padres Dodgers. I want to start broad and bright, okay,

(07:39):
because it's easy to get caught in the weeds when
you're a winning team going through a playoff run. And
I'll give a couple examples of this as we before
we get into some some happiness. Friday night, we did
a padres hot to postgame show after a two to

(08:00):
one win over La, and a lot of people were
in our chat that night going like, what did we lose?
What's going on? Because we were critical of process in
that game. You get more critical of process when you're
a winning team. That's good because every detail matters when

(08:20):
you play other good teams. When you're a mediocre or
a lousy team, you know, sometimes that stuff is a
little bit of sniff in your own farts, you know,
But when you're a good team, it matters. Another thing
I saw earlier today in our Patreon our Discord watch party.

(08:41):
I saw a couple of people early in the game,
but just like anytime someone expressed nervousness or anxiety or concern,
it was like, oh, what's the matter? You know, don't
you know? It almost like don't you know how to fan?
But someone was like, the last time I enjoyed being
in this watch party when the team was bad. And

(09:03):
it brings me back to this point when you're of
course it is watch parties are fun when it doesn't matter.
Watch parties are great when the stakes are low, so
that when you win a game, it's cool, it's groovy.
You won a game. Yeah, when you lost a game, well,
you know, we were thinking we were going to lose anyway,

(09:25):
so it's not that big a deal. That is a
fun time. A lot of people go like, oh, I
miss the old days of Padres Twitter. And part of
the reason that was the Padres sucked, and so it
was fun to do things like have the postgame threads
on Twitter, you know, with the dunking on the other
team memes and all of that. That's great when you're

(09:45):
a bad team, when Travis Jinkowski just bounced to run
double off your outfielder's head or something, and you won
a game and then you put up seven thousand memes,
I that's because there was no stakes. Now it's silly.
When you're a winning team, you beat the Rockies and
you put up a thousand memes, you just look like
a dick, you know. So the point I'm making is

(10:08):
that there's often an inverse correlation between your enjoyment of
a team and the team's success. And you'd think it'd
be the other way around. You'd think that you would
love nothing more than the winning team and that you'd
hate nothing more than the losing team. But stakes and

(10:29):
anxiety in a game as miserably random and repetitious as
Major League Baseball lead you to spin yourself into a
circle every game as a committed, passionate fan when the
stakes matter, and again when the stakes don't matter and
you're seventy and ninety two, it's very easy to be easy, breezy,

(10:50):
and just something I've really noticed in the fan base
as we get closer and closer to not cutting time here.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Maybe you know, in that postgame show, we are getting
a lot of a lot of flack just for you know,
going after stuff that we've gone after the club for
all year. And I kind of get that, you know,
we're a bit of dog chasing her tail with some
of the questions about the team's process, you know, the

(11:18):
dedication to certain things. Specifically in that game, it was bunting.
It was bunting that got us frustrated because it wound
up being an incredibly tight game, and the Padres basically
manifest that when they give away out. You know, they
in essence gave away a big inning in that particular
game in a way that they didn't do the very

(11:40):
next night. And you know, those kind of juxtapositions kind
of speak for themselves. At the same time, I'm really
happy I became a baseball fan in the nineties before
we had these cell phone things that kind of refresh
our memory banks every day or so, you know, and
we get the short term, very short horizon and the

(12:02):
very reactionary type behavior going on. Because I still haven't
been able to apply that to baseball, like these are
all one of one sixty two. I'm definitely not on
the team, but I understand why players are required to

(12:23):
have the very long mentality of it, like not don't
get it too up when you're up, don't get too
down with your down. You gotta be slow and steady,
because otherwise you're gonna drain yourself before you have a
chance to play meaningful baseball games. So I try not
to do that as a fan, like I try not to,

(12:44):
I just try to enjoy watching baseball for the time
that we're gonna get to because crack guess what, in
a month and a half month and three quarters, we're
gonna look up and baseball is gonna be gone from
our lives. And sometimes it can be stupid, but for
the vast majority of the season, I love watching this

(13:06):
game and it's it's been a privilege because this team
for many years now, the Padres have invested in being competitive.
You know, we're in the golden age of Padres baseball.
We get a team that has a shot at it
every year. Sometimes the scratchers don't work out. Sometimes at

(13:28):
the deadline they have to dig a little deep in
the prospect pool. But by and large, this team's fun
to watch. And you know, I I get why folks
want to hear optimism right now. I get why they
don't want to hear too much criticism because you know,

(13:48):
the Mopi smokes are real and like, it can be
a downer if you're the You're in a room of
people having a good time and there's one person in
the corner going, oh, but what about that when Schmevy
comes in? Like, I get it. But I think that
this team is doing a lot of things really well.
I think there's not a lot of picks I have
to knit whatsoever, but or questions, no picks to knit

(14:13):
either of them either, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna.
I'm not gonna do either too much.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Well, but well, you know, let's just get to this
because honestly, I wanted it to be as far to
the front of the episode as possible. This was an
outstanding week for the San Diego Padres in twenty twenty five.
This was one of their best weeks. The Padres had
a five game winning streak in the week it was

(14:38):
you know, uh sandwiched the bread of the sandwich was
a lost Monday and a lost Sunday, but in between
was a five game winning streak in which they gained
two games on Los Angeles. They started the week two
games back and they ended the week tied and people
well tied.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
But the tiebreaker is.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
The tiebreaker counts on the last day of the season,
only only today the Padres and Dodgers are tied. We
know at the end of the year that LA wins
the division if they win it or tie, and that
the Padres must win. So that's something we know. But

(15:20):
there's thirty one games left for each of the teams,
and if the Dodgers go seventeen and fifteen and the
Padres seventeen and fourteen and the Padres go eighteen and thirteen,
the Padres win the division. It is that simple. So
of all the weeks of the season so far, this

(15:42):
was a week where the Padres ended it with a known,
now clearly defined, tangible path to winning the National League West.
They just have to be one game better than Los Angeles,
playing the easiest schedule in all of Major League Baseball.
Over those thirty one games, they just need a plus

(16:02):
one and they take the West.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
YEP, that's very doable. I mean, Padres, right now this moment,
I think still have their highest win division probability out
of Fangress. Maybe I don't. I don't think it ever
got close to fifty percent, even when they had the
games on the Dodgers. But right now it's forty three,

(16:29):
zero point three percent. That's a coin flip. And like
if anybody would have thought that, you know, at any
point prior to the last fifteen days, really they would
have been laughed at. But here we stand, Padres in
a dead heat with the Dodgers, with both teams almost

(16:50):
certain to be playing meaningful baseball in October, and you
can't complain. I mean you can, but I don't want
to listen to it.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Well, here's another positivity prompt. I think a lot of big,
important good things happened this week in addition to just
the results. I think there were certain sign posts along
the way that were tremendous. In fact, I came up
with three great things I thought happened this week. You
got the menu before we started. Do you have three

(17:20):
things that you could say or that great things that
happened this week.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
For the week in particular, I mean, yeah, but there
are a lot of the same ones you have, because,
like you, Darvish is my favorite player, and he came
out and through an absolutely dominating game Friday night. You know,
I think that's particularly huge because we're going to go
into the playoffs with him penciled in as one of

(17:51):
the guys, and to have him having any sort of
return to form, just even for if it's for another start,
just quieting the is you Darvish dead noise like that
makes me really happy.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, yeah, that would be my number one for the week.
The best thing that happened this week is you Darvish
pitched so well against La and looked so much more
in control of what he was doing than before that.
It makes you feel a lot better than the week
prior about you Darvish going into the postseason and the

(18:26):
Padre's ability to count on you Darbish going into the postseason.
Now on previous episodes of the show, I've said that
when I'm watching you, it reminds me of watching Joe
Musgrove last year. Somebody who's working his way around a
known problem. You know, in this case, it's even more known,
I think, because Joe Musgrove did a good job of

(18:47):
keeping his elbow a secret. We knew he was coming
back from a shoulder problem last year. This year, you,
Darvish basically says three times into the air a day,
like my elbow sucks, and then to any microphone when
he discusses his craft. But he looked for real on

(19:10):
Friday night, and if he can keep that up the
rest of the year, the Padres have a weapon that
can match up with other teams weapons in the postseason.
That was a perfect example. He faced Snell on a
night that Snell was really really good and he was better.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, you know, and Blake Snell's two years removed from
Assai Young or One of the ones that I have
that you don't is Ryan O'Hearn has been a huge,
like focal point of the conversation around the team, just

(19:52):
based on the fact that the first two weeks or
so he wasn't given as much much playing time as
you know, we kind of would have thought, considering he
was a trade target and a big deadline acquisition. But
Jackson Merrill goes down. He's gonna be on the il
for just about another week. I think like the ile

(20:15):
stint is by and large also a really good thing,
you know, just from Jackson's comments about it, being like
I wanted to keep playing. No good job, Baudrey's way
to be the adult in the room, get that kid
off his feet with an eye towards the future. But
Ryan O'Hearn, last seven games over one dot in it.

(20:36):
You know, you're looking at an ops of one point
zero seven to six. He has forced Mike Schill to
make room for him in the lineup with Jackson's back,
like he has, like no question about it. And I
think that if he had been given any sort of

(20:58):
excuse whatsoever, Mike Schill would not have felt that pressure
at all. I think he would have been fine to
just do status quo, you know, keep this as many
things as he's left them for as long as possible.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Correct, that's a great call, Ryan O'Hearn, Well, I'll just
go to one from that, just to piggyback from a
kind of even topic standpoint, I'll go to what I
thought was the third biggest thing that happened this week,
which was that Gavin Sheets had himself a week. You know,
he had the opportunity finally to play every day again,

(21:34):
which is what he had the entire season prior to
the trade deadline. While everyone has been covetching about Ryan
O'Hearn not being in there every day sometimes, Gavin Sheets
was in there not at all. You know, he had
like five at bats in two and a half weeks,
and then all of a sudden he gets to play

(21:55):
and was dynamite. Dynamite, Yeah, all week long against Rights.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Just missed a home run today it sounded like.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I mean just tremendous. And I really think he's
been missed in the lineup for his slugging speaking of
the last seven days, like you just did with Ryan O'Hearn,
three sixteen average, three point fifty on base, seven thirty

(22:24):
seven slugging for a one thousand and eighty seven ops.
So very similar to O'Hearn. Actually, if you go back
to more games, it's even better. It's three forty eight,
three seventy five, seven, thirty nine, eleven, fourteen. Uh ops.
Having and here's the thing, having sheets in the lineup

(22:46):
is a nice thing. Having O'Hearn and sheets in the
lineup gives you a little bit of power all of
a sudden, and then you've got Loreano too, you know,
and it's a little bit of pow. And this is
a point I had made on a couple of different
postgame shows during the week, and each time I feel

(23:06):
like I, you know, raised an alarm bell back in
the medulla of Legata for you there, Chris, because I said, like, well,
when Merrill comes back, this will be But just as
point of fact, Jackson Merrill has hit about half the
homers of Gavin Cheets this year, about half. And that's
not an indictment. We know he hit twenty four homers

(23:26):
last year. Who knows, maybe he'll hit seven homers in
the month of September and he'll regain that power stroke
like he did well, he had done it long before.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Now.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Last year it was in June that he started hitting homers,
but he still had like.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
A three week period where he put ten on the board,
not ten, but I think it was six or seven.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, absolutely, So you know, maybe that could still come back,
but one of the Padres' biggest offensive problems that's not
going to go away is their lack of slug. And
when they do things that address their lack of slug,
their offense improves. And part of this great week was
by being forced not by choice but by situation, being

(24:12):
forced into a more powerful lineup that wind up doing better.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, and we know they're not going to volunteer it.
You know, we're gonna talk about it later on show.
The absolute hobby horse of our particular program this year
is the Padres choices surrounding Louis Arris, and they're they're
not going to change anytime soon. You know, Luis not

(24:41):
only doesn't have a home run in August, his slug
is three forty one. You know, that's the guy that
isn't going to get any any power out of the bat.
And he's not the only one, right, I mean, there's
there's a few Padres that aren't going to hit more
than ten home runs. And you're starting to hear the

(25:03):
broadcast kind of make excuses like Bob Scandal on the
radio today was was carrying some water for the club
style of play and rightfully so. Dave Roberts complimented the
Padres style of offensive approach at the plate just the
other night, you know, talking about how he wishes his
club had a little bit more in it. And that's fine,
that's good lip service. But I think Bob is off

(25:26):
base when he says in the playoffs he would rather
have that that you know, gap to gap, feisty ball
in play approach than a home run hitting team, because
it's yeah, it's silly, it's kind of I don't I'm not,
I don't want to use the type of word, but

(25:48):
it's it's a denial of the modern game, and it's
a denial of what happened to the Padres last year.
You need power, you need the three run swing of
the game, like we saw today in the Dodgers favor.
That is such a huge card to put on the
table and anything anytime. The Padres can make the choice

(26:09):
to put those cards on the table, meaning in the lineup.
I think it's gonna bode really well for the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, I mean, you can go and find the stat
you want. The twenty fifteen Royals are the only team
anywhere approaching a power profile of San Diego's that's won
the world's championship in the twenty first century. I think
something like the last five or six. I forget the
exact number, but I heard this stat earlier this week.

(26:37):
The last five or six champions all finished top four
in homers. So you know, the Dodgers won the World
Series with homers. Keep going, just go back when the
Astros beat the Phillies, Jordan Alvarez the big home run,
you know, that turned the game around.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Phillies beat the Padres in the NLCS.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Bryce Harper hit the big home run, like you know,
home runs win in the playoffs period, So that's just
that's nothing but lip service. But regardless, regardless, Gavin Cheets
had himself a week you darbish looks for real And.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
I have one. Yeah, I have one more because you
can button it up with your guy, because I think
it's a little bit more powerful than mine. But the
Padres and Mike Schildt like to hang their hat. I'm
playing clean baseball. They have one air this week, and
we saw a Dodger series where they did not play
nervous nelly on the bases, didn't run into outs left

(27:38):
and right. So well, yeah, there was one there was one.
There was one, but there was also Ramon Loreano taking
away a Grand Slam today, which the whole game looks
different if he doesn't do that, and Tattoos with another
epic all season, you know, all decade robbing of a

(28:01):
home run. So like Padre's defense is the caliber they
needed to be, and they're playing that clean version of
the game that they also love.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I think, I mean, I know the Padres have robbed
at least six homers this year because Tatis has robbed three,
Merrill robbed two, like in the same week he robbed two.
We just saw Loreano rob a Grand Slam. That's six.
I was trying to think if anyone else in left
had robbed a homer at any point this year, but

(28:32):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
I think Page. I think I think Hayward might have
got one. I think maybe I could be having jerks
and profar flat.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's six, But still six is
a lot. Six has a lot of homers to be
dragged back, and two in a week is pretty pretty amazing.
I agree the defense was good and the Padres didn't
shit their pants this weekend, and they also you know,
played a Giants team that made poopy pants all over

(29:01):
the place, and they took advantage of it to to
win games. So that's great, Okay. Last on our outstanding Carousel,
Nestor Cortez enters the chat. You know, here's a guy
that had just gotten bombed in the first inning of
each of his first three Padres starts. I had given

(29:21):
up six runs in those three starts in the first inning,
had pitched better after that, but had always put his
team in a hole. Rubinieble Chart challenged him. They switched
things up, and this guy goes out there and pitches
perfect baseball into the sixth against the Dodgers, goes six innings,
one hit, no runs, and the same week that Dylan

(29:46):
Ce pitches another just kind of whatever game it is,
I think a pretty significant development. Not that this one
game changes the depth chart or upsets the Apple card,
but it creates the pathway for it. If Nester Cortes

(30:06):
goes out and gets dinked around again, he's just way
at the bottom of the depth chart for this team.
But he's a veteran who's been cy young worthy, who's
you know, all star level in his recent past. And
if he's good enough to pitch big games. That's huge

(30:27):
for San Diego because we've got a guy in our
rotation as we know that's not good at pitching big games.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
I wonder if our fantastic beat reporter, Kevin Ace will
bring up Dylan's record against the Dodgers in the last
part of last season to Mike Chilton any press conferences.
But Kevin also with a great tidbit in the report

(30:57):
from last night's game that I missed on on the
radio broadcast, in that Nestor Cortes waved off Mike Shilp
as Mike shild walked out of the dugout to pull
him and using that veteran savvy, using the personality and
the moxie that he asks and no, no, I got
this man. And I think that type of attitude, that

(31:19):
type of competitiveness out of the starting pitching is going
to go a long way. We already know that Paveta
have it, We know Darvish is an absolute dog. Just
getting another guy out there that is going to bring
that attitude and that ownership to the bump bodes really well.
I don't know, you know, like if the apple cart

(31:40):
would get tossed whatsoever. JP Sears still up on the team,
at least until Michael King comes back. But Nestor is
going to be on the club, you know, he doesn't
have options, and it might have been if he goes
out and gets shelled in the first in against the Dodgers.
Like it's at the time of the year where these

(32:01):
irreversible decisions sometimes have to be made, and to see
him come out deal just awesome, you know. And he's
a guy that I root for all the way. Like
he's a character man. We need more characters in baseball,
and baseball is better with Nestor Cortez doing well.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
I think it's a very exciting development. I truly do.
I I don't think there's another picture on the Padres roster.
There's not gonna be another picture that can possibly crack
the playoff inner circle. But Nestor is.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Like, yeah, like he could do a game like a four, right, Like,
I don't think he's gonna get the three, but he
could do he could get into the four maybe depending
on how Michael King does.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Like you'll hear me say again later in the podcast,
I don't actually expect the Padres to do something this innovative,
but Nestor Cortes has the exact same chance of being
on this team next year as Dylan sees, which is
they're not going to be. I mean, I guess Nestra
has a better chance, but he's going to ask for

(33:14):
some contract in the millions. And the Padres will not
spend any money all winter again, you know, and and
and and they'll wait because they're committed to all the
salaries they're committed to. I believe they will both be gone.
Let me just put it that way. I believe they
will both be gone come the winter. So there's no
reason to be like, well, Dylan, you know you've you've
just meant so much to us. We just owe it

(33:36):
to you to give you that. No, you owe him nothing.
You owe him a qualifying offer at the end of
the year. That's what you owe. That's what you owe,
Dylan sees. You know, you don't owe any outgoing free
agent a gosh darn thing other than to make sure
the check's clear at the end of the year. You
don't have to be precious with their psychology or or

(33:59):
what they're going to think of about their career or
their earnings. You need to do what's best for the
San Diego Padres, and I would love to see if, if, if,
and only if Nestor Cortes pitched like this five or
six more times before the end of the year and
Michael King comes back healthy a paveta Darvish King Cortes

(34:25):
playoff rotation. Yeah, with Dylan Cees, as you're we fell
behind by three, bringing Dylan Cease, let him just show, Yeah,
let him just shove and throw ninety nine for three
innings and see if that's a bridge that can help you.
You know, I really like that. I like that better

(34:46):
than Dylan Cees putting you in that for nothing hole
and asking Nestor Cortes to to come in and close
the door for you. Sure, I like it the other
way around a lot better. But anyways, we're getting ahead
of ourselves. Here are the schedule. Here is the exact
schedule remaining for both San Diego and La at a

(35:07):
flat footed tie at this stage, the race begins now
sprint thirty one days, not thirty one days, but thirty
one games for each team. The Padres go to Seattle.
They start with arguably their toughest series of the Remainserons wise,

(35:27):
for sure. Yeah, at Seattle a team that swept you
here and is way better now with Naylor, with Suarez,
all the additions they've had. Their pitching staff is getting
back healthy. Seattle is loaded and you play there. So
that's your heart ist series and you're going to start

(35:49):
with it. Then you go to Minnesota, which gutted themselves, wastless,
got to hit the other day, you know, but they're
they're a gutted version of themselves.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
They're going to be facing Mick Abel and TODG. Bradley,
like big question marks coming out of their run unless
they face Joe Ryan.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Joe Ryan's tough.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
But they do, they're slated, but that's the last game.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Well, Joe Ryan is really tough, so that's something to
worry about. Otherwise, you know, you should go to Minnesota
and win two. Baltimore is a team that people have
been throwing in.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
The bad bin.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, young players, they brought up the catcher Bilalo, They're
not playing god awful baseball. Baltimore is a team with
nothing to lose at this point, they've already given up
on their season. I think that's a tougher. I would
rate that in the top three of tough series. Remaining
in the season. I just if you take care of

(36:45):
business great. Then you go to Colorado for three. That's
the weekend the Savannah Bananas takeover Peco Park. Padres will
be at Quersfield. They come home to host Cincinnati, and
then Colorado for four. Then you go on the road
for the last time. Three at the Mets, a team

(37:06):
in free fall, Three at the White Sox, a team
that's been in free fall for two seasons plus. And
the last week of the season you host Milwaukee and
Craig Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
What is the three letter acronym for Milwaukee?

Speaker 1 (37:24):
By the way, Well, it's MK. What Yeah? What MK?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Is this? It's am I the most insane thing I
have ever seen in our notes MK. As you know.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Millwake Sorry what the hell?

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Yeah? Literally is that that's an airport?

Speaker 1 (37:57):
And they finish and they wrap things up with Arizona.
I personally think the placement of the Millewaukee series is
potentially sneaky, very important because Milwaukee will have already wrapped
up everything by the last week of the season based

(38:19):
on their trajectory, unless they, you know, do a twenty
ten podrais and spend from like tomorrow through two weeks
losing every game. Yeah, they are gonna be wrapped up,
completely wrapped up, everything cinched and they're gonna be just
setting things in order, having four inning starts and lining

(38:43):
up things. You could get a champagne soaked disinterested Brewers
club the last week of the season. Now as I
do LA, there's gonna be a kicker at the end.
All right, here's the Dodger sched So that was it.
That was it for the Padres schedule. A lot of
room to get hot. In that schedule. I see two

(39:08):
or three different area that at Colorado versus Cincinnati versus
Colorado right there, that's ten games. You know, turn and burn,
go get these games. Then you go to the Mets,
then you go to the White Sox. You've got a
chance to really get hot. Here's what LA has. They
start off their next series is hosting Cincinnati, then they'll

(39:32):
host Arizona, then they'll go to Pittsburgh. Could Paul Schemes
win the NL West for the Padres by never facing
them and then just beating LA in a big game
at the Confluence Park there at PNC Park, it's possible.
We need a plus one. Schemes could be the plus

(39:55):
one that Pittsburgh series, they go to Baltimore, get Baltimore
at home.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
They go to Baltimore, and just on the note of
how Baltimore has been, Baltimore's five games over five hundred
since June gaily abysmal first three months of the season,
and then they've looked a lot like the team we've
come to know since.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
They're good.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
They're they're not bad. They kept all their good young players,
they traded away the free agents, you know, and now
here they are. Then the Dodgers get their last series
against the Rockies. They get a three game home series
against the Rockies. They go to San Francisco, they host
the Phillies. They host San Francisco for four games, and

(40:42):
they will wrap up the season on the road when
the Patters wrap up at home, where they're one of
the two best home teams in baseball. The Dodgers will
wrap up the season on the road at Arizona. And
then their last series is at Seattle. And while I
brought up that the Podres might be catching Milwaukee at

(41:05):
the right time, getting him in the last week, it's
just as possible that Seattle will be in a dogfight
with Houston right to the last game, and it's more the.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Next closest division besides US.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Right, So that could be a series that both teams
are playing their asses off to win their division and
LA is getting the very best of a playoff ready
Seattle team up there in Seattle last weekend of the
series of the season. Overall, I like the podres chances.

(41:48):
Whether it's a fifty four percent advantage fifty three and
a half, it's not huge, but I like these little
tiny garden spots I'm seeing, you know, and listen, they
could be saying on the Dodgers Nation podcast, Well, maybe
Joe Ryan Wins wins a game in Minnesota, just like
I'm saying maybe Paul Skins wins a game in Pittsburgh.

(42:09):
You know, you can go down the list, but I
just I think I think that there's beyond just the
strength of schedule. I think there's certain things within there
when you really dig into the map, that could favor
San Diego by a game or two, and that's all
you need. All you need is one game and you've
got home field advantage in the first round of the

(42:30):
playoffs guaranteed, and you might never have to play LA
again this year. You might never have to play LA
one more time this year. We've talked, we're at forty
three minutes or so, and we don't probably need to
get into each one of these games in the level

(42:52):
of depth that we did in the post games. Chris,
you know we've talked through them to some extent already.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, right, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
To to one win Friday, Padres really just played small ball.
They played a nineteen seventies game like they were facing
Steve Carlton. And I don't love the process of that,
because the single thing the Padres do the worst other
than hit homers offensively is driving runners in scoring positions,
So giving up outs in order to just set up

(43:24):
a chance at a runner in scoring position or two chances.
I don't love that process. None of us do. I
was listening to the pregame show today with Sammy levetyet
on Jose Mota, who actually did spring training games with
like twenty three years ago. He's a Dodgers broadcaster. I'm
doing a podcast. I guess he did better. But when

(43:48):
Sam asked him about the series and the matchup, like
the literally the first thing Jose Motive said was, well,
this to Padres team forty buns. I mean, who could
imagine forty buns. I don't think the Dodgers have forty
buns in the twenty twenties.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
No.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Nonetheless, that was Friday Saturday, Cortes. We talked about it.
Big hits for Ramon Loreano, Xander Boguards, no big hits
for Los Angeles. Today's game. I would just say, you know,
eight two and everyone, you know, when you read all
the national ride ups are going to be well and
the Dodgers romped and you know answered one back.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
It was two two in the seventh like it was
a good game. And when, as you mentioned earlier, Ramon
Loreano robbed ta Oscar Hernandez of a Grand Slam and
gave Nick Pavetta a chance to hit reset on an
outing that was going disastrously to start, I really thought
San Diego was probably gonna win the game. When Alias

(44:53):
Diaz then hits a two run homer, it was like
Holy Cow found money. If we were doing one of
our postgame shows and we talked about our five MS,
including the moment, I would have had a split M
and my moment would have been both of Gavin sheet's
leadoff doubles, neither of which came around to score. For

(45:16):
a team that has worked so hard on being team
little ball, they got a lead off double and they
couldn't get the guy home. And when you do that
twice against LA, you're usually not going to win. And
they didn't win.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
They only averaged three runs a game against the Dodgers.
You know, I asked for a little bit more than that.
And that's right at their line of being a winning
team or a losing team, as we talked about a
whole bunch this year. Four runs winning team, three runs
losing record, losing team. So you know, but the fact

(45:51):
of the matter is they walked away with the series win.
So like, really tough matchup, tough club up there in LA.
They're slowly getting help, but the Padres found a way
to win two out of three and that's all they
got to do the rest of the way out and
I think they're gonna be taking that first week of

(46:11):
the playoffs off.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Well, I don't know if they will, because there's a
whole separate matter of catching Philadelphia, which I believe is
twenty two games over five hundred.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Now, they got a tougher schedule just inherently. Yeah, and
they're going to be in a dogfight with the Mets,
like that's a tough division too. I know, I think
they're up five games right now, but.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
That's ever to get hot, and then if they do,
that means they're in the Padres way. So well, yeah, maybe.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Maybe that's my dream. Craig, don't kill it.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Here's the thing. I hope everyone heard me clearly when
I said I actually think the Padres should be slightly
favored to win the West now, like I think they
really can win the West. I believe they can do it.
I see it.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
I do.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
I crunch the numbers. I like their odds. The LA
series is over, the Padres went four and nine, and
we can talk through everything, you know, like today's talking point,
I'm sure tomorrow talk radio is going to be filled
with Jeremiah Estrada. Let me just say this in defense
of Mike Shild. Absolutely, Mike Shild should have put Jeremiah

(47:26):
Estrada in the game today, not David Morgan in a
two to two game in the seventh.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yes, he's getting destroyed if he doesn't. Right, he's one
of the horsemen for crying out loud.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Does Jeremiah Estrata have a Dodgers problem? Yes, he's got
it this year. He's got a Dodgers problem. He admitted it.
He said it today himself. He said, they know the
color of my underwear. He literally said that. You either
were like, do you think you know they know what pitches?
He goes, I think they know the color of my underwear.
They know everything, they know what day for lunch, Like

(48:02):
you know, it was great? I agree, yeah, but I don't.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I do not blame Mike Schuld for having confidence in
the next time Jeremiah Strata faces the Dodgers being the
competitive type of guy that's gonna go out there and
make the adjustments necessary. And I don't blame him thinking
he might have done it today.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
If he had brought him in to face show Hey
O Tani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, I would have
been upset he brought him in to face Pahz and
Confordo and is so On and Rojas and Rushing and
those were going to be the four guys that he
got because if Otani came up, Morojane was coming in

(48:43):
and he failed. He gave up two hits and are
hitting a walk, and then he gave up a three
run bomb, and then he gave up another hit, and
then he was taken out of the game and that
runner scored and you know, tada, Dodgers run off to win.
Here's the good news. Jeremiah Strada has an ERA of
like one point three in forty something innings against everyone

(49:07):
that's not LA, and he may not face LA again
the rest of the year. So put it in the
rear view mirror, little bookmark keep the pin just in
case the playoff series rolls around. At that point, we'll
discuss Jeremiah Strada's just you know, disgusting numbers, which are
like literally an eighteen ERA or so and five home

(49:28):
runs in six innings against l Five home runs in
six innings. Okay, that's like something that would be in
the Major League script. Did you see fireball estrata? He
can blow them all away, but not this team.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
Yeah, not against Lou Hayward, not against exactly. Hayward takes
him deep every time. So you know, it is what
it is. But I think it's very clear and it
should be instructive for Padres fans that this is just
a bad matchup for our team in this content, it's.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Not just it's La, it's the Dodgers. Dodger No, you
could name them the superbas again, you could name them whatever.
You could throw the Brewers costumes on them, the Angels
costumes on them. This team is a bad matchup for
our team. Why because that team LA, their number one

(50:27):
strengths directly attack our number one's weaknesses. They have overwhelming
power and we do not. So while the Padres need
to chain together offense to get a three run inning,
they're gonna need like five results. For the Dodgers, they need,
you know, a walk and a hit and then a bomb.

(50:51):
And they do it all the time. They do it
all the time. About half their offense comes from home runs.
They've got overwhelming power. We match up with teams that
don't have overwhelming power. We match up with teams that
have to fight for offense just like we do, because
we've got the ability to hold teams down with our

(51:12):
pitching staff and to keep runners on base and to
strand them. But the one thing that is going to
hurt any pitching staff is the long ball. So the
fact that they can make that everyone on their team
can homer that their full strength team has just like
two and a half times as much power as our team.
That's a bad matchup. By contrast, Milwaukee, which has the

(51:35):
best record in all the baseball. You put our team
against their team, and you're saying that Caleb Durbin and
Bryce Terrang and salth Freelich and Joey or Teaz are
gonna have to beat us. Are they gonna beat us
with a long ball or are they gonna have to
chain off? I mean, maybe anything's possible. Baseball is stupid,

(52:02):
anti jingstick. I'm just saying, of course anything could happen.
But the Cubs, the Brewers, even the Phillies have Harper.
You know, they've got some power. But it's not It's
not like it was a couple of years ago where
even like, oh god, even realm Muto is gonna hit
twenty eight homers or whatever. You know, Like, yeah, only

(52:25):
La has the level of power that really makes it
a bad matchup for our team. I like the matchup
against pretty much everyone else.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
So I mean, yeah, they put they have fucking five
hundred million in their first three batters. I have just
little hat tipped to the Patres for neutralizing Otani. Until
you know, extra extra you know, junk ball home run
that he hit today. But like I like the Padres

(53:05):
demonstrating the first two games of the series. Yeah, that's
they're going to take against the Dodgers' arms. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Well, and that's the other big strength that they have
is that they've got fast ball, outstanding starters, and our
Padres hit breaking balls pretty well as a ball club.
But the you know, you can see it with Snell,
all these guys, they've got great But fuck the Dodgers. Officially,

(53:37):
fuck the Dodgers. The goal is should be, and it's
not bashful or whatever, is to never play them again.
Get in the other side of the bracket and let
someone else beat l A and it can happen and
take your chances with literally anybody else. If it comes
to it, we'll.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Get into it. But short of that, I'm not afraid
of them, Craig, like I'll the only thing that's a
drag about them facing the Padres for me is that
I don't get the games on TV during the regular season,
and the playoffs will get them. So I'm not afraid
of the Dodgers. Like they've got a hubris and arrogance

(54:16):
and like a thirst that. You know, I think the
Padres can exploit and I'm not afraid of them, but
I mean anytime that you don't have to face show, Hey,
Freddie and Moki, you do take that too.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, I am afraid of them and I'd rather not
face them, so so fuck them, and I hope that
they trip on a curb on their way out the door.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
I saved it all for last because we're not going
to spend a lot of time on it. We're almost
on the hour. Yeah, there are certain things that we
would just like to see change. And you can listen
to any one of eighty shows we've done in the
life last two months to say that Luisa Rise shouldn't
be hitting second for the San Diego Padres. The numbers
are crystal clear. But the one thing that people have

(55:09):
been really and I've talked about it, Chris right, why
would San Diego keep writing Luisa Rise's name into the lineup?
It's they're not looking at what he's doing, it's what
they think he might do.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Old on, let me let me give you the look
that Mike shil might give you if you answer if
you ask this question.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, exactly, go hit go ahead.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, go oh go Hill.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
What well did you know that Luisa Rise is having
his worst month as a San Diego Padre that in
the month of August he's hitting two fifty with a
two seventy seven on base percentage as the number two
hitter two fifty, two seventy seven, three p forty one

(55:55):
A six eighteen ops, which is positively Ray or Doniez esque. Okay,
you know Caesar Is Tourists think about light hitting shortstops. Uh,
Luisa Rise is hitting like that. But he's supposed to
be an elite hitting second basement, not a light hitting
short stop. And by the way, he's not even the
second basement, He's a first baseman, and so that makes

(56:18):
it like way worse. But his only month of the
year that he had hit over three hundred July three,
twenty three, he immediately pops back to two fifty. If
you get a little more granular. In his last two weeks,
he's hitting two thirty one with a two point fifty
on base percentage.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
And against lefties, the entire year, Luisa Rise is hitting
two fifty three with a two seventy seven on base
percentage three point thirty five slugging for a six thirteen
OPS that once again is Ray or Doniez esque. So
all we'd really be asking of the Podreys is to

(57:02):
read the instruction card, you know, like when you opened
up the Arise package, Like read the instructions because this
is a broken toy right now. And the fact that
you're giving him the second most at bats on the
entire team. Yes, it's getting to the point that this
truly can be the edge upon which the Podreys fall

(57:24):
if it lines up that way.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
And back to your guy Craig that you brought up.
He's only played in He's only started seven games this month.
He's only appeared in eleven but Gavin sheets month of August.
He has an Arise esque three to zero eight batting average.
He's one dotting it on the year, and if you

(57:48):
just get into the plutoon splits of the guy during
the season, he's hitting a full seventy six points lower
on the ops and has thirty point higher bats average
left handed than he does right Power numbers way down,
opportunities are also way down, but he has not been
a slouch. He is a league average hitter in the

(58:11):
split against left handed pitching. This year, and that's better
than a Rise. And if you look at the other
guy in the lineup who might take some you know,
comparison to a Rise, Jacob Croninworth, he's basically doing exactly
what Gavin Sheets is doing one oh one ops in

(58:32):
the split as opposed to a ninety nine six four.
I mean, I sees me ops plus one hundred being
average six ninety four ops. Like, both these guys are
out performing Louisa Rise and Ryan o'haron's blowing him completely away.
So if you're looking at any sort of measurement, this

(58:55):
year arises fourth on the team of those four dudes.
And it's not just that you won't bench him, it's
that you're batting in behind Fernando at the top of
the order.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, and again this is this is the official Padres
Hot Tub hobby horse for the second half of twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
It's been since the first half. We've been on this
for a long time. Yeah, since the bunting started, right
since Luis Riah set his career high for bunts back
in April.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
But even then, even in May, even in June, there
was always the possibility of that second half takeoff, that
four point fifty for two straight months, and even just
hit four hundred for two straight months, and remind everyone
that your Luise mother fucking arrives and stop worrying about me. Well,

(59:48):
as point of fact, just looking at a Savant page
and is rolling ex wOBA, it's all the way down
to two seventy four, two seventy four, every one of
his numb he's got a career low exit velocity. He's
got a career low expected batting average, he's got a

(01:00:10):
career low ex woe bacon. He's got a career low
hard hit percentage. In fact, all the way down to
fifteen percent. He was at thirty in his other batting
title years, all the way down to fifteen percent.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
So, because you just said the word, how about them
three Batten titles? Yeah, how many batting titles that Gavin
Chets have?

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
I mean if you won, because just asking the question, Yeah,
I'll answer the question, But I just don't get how
you could ever talk bad about a three time battan champion. Well,
if you're going to manage in a trophy case, you're
not going to fill that case with any championship trophies,
all right, you never will you can look at your
team cy Young Awards and your Gold Gloves and your

(01:00:54):
batting titles and everything else, but if that's how you're
going to manage, you're not going to get the trophy
that matters the end. Mike Shilt is a problem for
this team in a small way. He's also been a big, huge,
huge part of the solution for two years. But I
am starting to get how the Cardinals could run him

(01:01:14):
out after three years of ninety wins and division titles
and send him packing because he does certain things that
are stubborn, and he does certain things that are insufferable, and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
You can see why some players love him. The Athletic
did this very wide ranging poll of MLB players yea
of like managers you would want to play for and
managers that you would no way, shape or form, have
anything to do with that you would hate to play for.
And way more guys answer the poll about who they
want to play for. And I think Mike Shilt was

(01:01:50):
in a tie for like sixth or seventh in that
particular poll, but he was in second or third plays
on the poll of managers that you would not want
to play for under any circumstance, right that tells you something.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Yeah, that he rubs you the wrong way after time
is what I think I'm seeing. But his strategic and
flexibility is very frustrating.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
I would say playing teachers pets, I would say playing favorites, Yeah,
like that would be one thing that would frustrate a clubhouse.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Yes, and also just being constantly. I was thinking about
this in the drive home from working at Wave tonight,
and I want to say this in a more positive
way because I don't want it to sound like I'm
trashing a guy who's an excellent manager. That's twenty two
and thirteen in the second half. Okay, you know he's

(01:02:48):
once again winning a lot of games. But I love
Mikey Varies, the head coach of San Diego FC. Love
I posted on Blue Sky earlier today. I wish Mikey
Varas could coach all my teams, and by that I
include the Podres. I wish Mikey Varas could coach the
Podreys because he creates these genuine connections. I would invite

(01:03:12):
you to go to San Diego FC's instagram and see
the clip of him inside the locker room last night
after a zero zero draw, but his team clinched a
playoff berth and talking to his team very honestly and
also challenging them and saying or korak now what because
he was saying, hey, we've made the playoffs. Now whator

(01:03:34):
o k And there was so much passion and realism
in it. And then you asked mikey Vardas questions at
press conferences and he gives you real answers, honest, honest answers.
Varda says something he said at the beginning of the year,
and he's held to it. He said it back in
training camp before we knew him, and he played the game.

(01:03:55):
He said, the outstanding players, of course, are in our lineup,
and of course the players who play poorly are out
of the lineup. But the players who play average to
slightly above average, those are players whose spots will be
challenged in the lineup because we're not looking for average
to above average. We're looking for the best, the best possible,

(01:04:19):
and if you're just playing above average, there might be
somebody behind you that can play better than that. And
he's held to it. He's taking guys out of the
lineup and moved guys around the lineup. They even guys
who had you know, hey, this it Coulz.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
You forget.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
Forget when that guy scored two goal, Forget when that
on Hell scored two goals early in the season, Like, no,
he doesn't do that shit. He's like, on Hell isn't
playing well, We're gonna sit him because we need we
need a better performance. I guarantee you Luisa Rise would
have been on the bench a month and a half
ago if mikey Vardis was the head coach the manager
of the San Diego Padres, because average to above average,

(01:04:58):
you're you are challenged. You aren't pat it on the
top of the head and said they're there, good boy,
You're you're challenged. And I would love to see least.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
When the Padres went and got Ryan o'hann at least
when that trade was because like the there weren't many
options behind him at the time, like yeah, Gavin Sheets,
Gavin Sheets had a terrible June. We have you know,
Corona Worth playing the position, but behind them not really.
But since that trade was made, since you added those reinforcements,
you know, seeing the whole seeing the lack of production,

(01:05:31):
and then just you know, when Jackson Merrill comes back,
or are those guys just gonna fall out in favor
of of what we've seen like that. The word accountability
gets thrown around a lot, and I tend to I
tend to be that's a that's an easy word to
use from the outside, from the fan perspective, but I

(01:05:52):
do think it's applicable here. I do think that accountability
on a championship roster means you can't be average. It
means you have to be extraordinary in at least at
what you're doing. And if that's providing vibes, then ain't enough.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yeah, vibes whatever. His performance has been really, really poor,
and it's negatively affected the offense in a big way.
And it's a defensive drag as well, because O'Hearn is
distinctly better at first base. Uh and and so look,
change it, podrais fucking change it. You've got an opportunity

(01:06:30):
when Jackson Merrill comes back.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
I think you said this really well, Craig during one
of the postgame show when you talked about this being
a you know, lack for of a better analogy. It's
a shot you get to fire once, yeah, and then
your powder's gone. Yeah, Because if you do that and
it doesn't work, then you're left with a clubhouse that
you know likes Luise Rise and like. And if it

(01:06:56):
doesn't work, then you're like, Okay, well now I'm ever
doing that again. Like tried it, got burned. Never can't
do it, Never gonna do it. But the timing is
getting the Swiss cheese is starting to line up. You
got the reinforcements that have arrived, you've got continued really

(01:07:19):
bad performance, and you've seen the alternative. You're getting to
the point in the schedule, in the meaningful, high leverage
championship games where power is needed and it's something the
club doesn't have, and he won't ever give it to you,
no matter what you wish out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
If he was hitting three twenty five, I wouldn't care
because he'd be giving you what he can. But he's
playing the worst baseball of his career, and he's having
the worst season of his career, and you don't owe
him anything, and you don't owe him a gosh darned thing.
You owe him nothing. He's gonna be gone at the

(01:08:04):
end of the season either way. The one thing you
owe it is you owe it, and you're right, I
you know, just to reinforce what you said there. Like
the point I was making on that postgame show that
night was when you've got a guy that's this interlaced
into the clubhouse, right, and you know that the day

(01:08:25):
that you put his name out of the lineup, that man,
he's gonna poke his head into the window of the
manager's office. And so is to tease, and maybe so
is Bogart's and maybe so is Merril. You know, like
a lot of maybe not maybe so, but a lot
of players are going to be like, hey, what the hell,
what's going on? And Luis is going to be devastated,
and he's gonna talk and he's gonna cry, and it's

(01:08:47):
gonna be a whole thing. And like the pressure really
would be on to go out and score seven runs
and win five games in a row and bury it
in the past, because it's just really once you do it,
you have to stick to it and turn Louise Rise
into Lenny Harris. Just turn them into an ace pinch
hitter and otherwise never play them, honestly, like, just never

(01:09:12):
play them, just like put o'he in it first. Put
sheets at dh A. Glacias is the guy who comes
in and that's that, And honestly, that's the very last
thing I would say, is just having seeing us lining
up against all these elite lefties, the last couple of
Robbie just this week, Robbie Ray Blake Snell. We came

(01:09:33):
away from the trade deadline saying, now the Padres have
a complete team, and they mostly do, but I do
see one if we could, if I could have had
one more thing, one tiny, little more thing, it would
have been just one more right handed bat because right
now our DH is a glacias against lefties and it's
just and honestly, it's gonna turn into maybe sheets instead,

(01:09:58):
because you just play a glacis a DH makes no sense.
Half of the like sixty percent of his value is defense,
so just playing the offensive weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
He's coming in a week on September first, the rosters
expand maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
No Will Wagner's already here. They called him up today.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Cap care be, care be. The cry is from the
chanting from El Paso grows louder as he breaks new
Clarouche's thirty year home run record. I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Never, never in the history of the game has a
player been talked about more by one tiny fervent segment
of a fan base that literally doesn't have one big
league hit and it's August fucking twenty fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Oh for the season.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
None not even one, not even a broken back bleeder,
not even a sixty eight hopper to the third basement. None,
and yet we're still chanting his name. We grounded to
four more double plays way so we could hit another

(01:11:22):
pop out the left field.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
It is gonna be Will Wagner, but he's left handed.
You need the right handed we need. We need Campy
for the stretch runs. That's the only way to it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
I'm just fired up for Willy Wags otherwise known as
Billy Bags. Just gotta get him going.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Anyways, I hear what you're saying. I think Ramon Loriano
kind of covers all the right handed thumb, like he
really gets it done for me. And I know, like
that's it. That's the end of the.

Speaker 5 (01:11:52):
Depth, because Jose Iglesias is is the guy behind him,
and you know, oh my god, oh.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
My god, it's not very powerful. Light a candle. It's
a little one though. A Candlelita, buy a candle for
the padres power. Okay, that's it for this week's show.
Padres again in Seattle, in Minnesota. You're leaving what midweek?

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
I will be gone Wednesday morning, so hopefully able to
do a postgame show tomorrow. Yeah, able to do a
postgame show the next day. But then I will be
gone from Wednesday until Monday night, and like gone gone,
like in the woods.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Wow, outstanding. We will find your way back though, and
so I'll be a solo soldier with all of our
Padres patrons the rest of the week. But thanks for
being here. If you've gotten to the end of our
video and you haven't clicked thumbs up on YouTube, click like, subscribe,
little comment, appreciate you on podcast as five star review
if you can click that, if you'd be kind enough

(01:13:03):
to leave a kind of positive review, all those things
really help hope Rafie's loving life in Europe. For Rafie
and Absentia and Chris right there, I'm Craig right here saying,
go Padres.