Sept. 18, 2023
This Week in Baseball 9.17.23 - Ep. 431
Mike Rizzo is back in for the Nationals, and Chaim Bloom is out for the Red Sox. Cole Ragans fell down for and on the Royals, and a knuckleballer finally reappeared and got a win in MLB.
Have you ever pondered the paradox of the LA Angels - a team struggling despite housing the sport's finest player for nearly a decade? We unpack this baseball enigma and explore the Hall of Fame candidacy of Zach Greinke. We also weigh in on Ohtani's potential return (NOT) to the Angels and the possible teams vying for a Trout trade.
We love Pablo Lopez and Luis Arraez and examine the trade between the Twins and the Marlins. Plus, with new pace of play changes causing a buzz, we analyze how this has increased sports fans' engagement. Last but not least, we wrap up with a review of the divisions already clinched and a forecast for the wildcard races.
Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!
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Chapters
00:00 - Insights on Baseball News and Playoffs
10:50 - Zack Greinke and Troubles of Angels
14:52 - Strange Pitching and Standout MLB Players
23:49 - Pace of Play Changes in Baseball
Transcript
WEBVTT
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The Mets gained a PoBO and the Angels lose a star and they might trade another one away.
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We had division races sort of come to a close and we had the first knuckleballer post to win in about five years.
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It's been a wild week in baseball and let's talk about it.
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Hi, welcome to Almost Cooperstown.
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I'm Mark and this is Gordon, and we love talking about baseball.
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We've had a busy, busy week and I was on and off the field.
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We had a GM in Washington get signed on long term.
00:00:31.829 --> 00:00:40.368
Happy that I think I mentioned that in last week's podcast that Mike Rizzo was sort of dangling there after they signed Dave Martinez, they made the deal with Mike Rizzo smart for the Nationals.
00:00:40.368 --> 00:00:44.426
Maybe the Lerners will decide to put some money in the team, but that we don't know yet.
00:00:44.908 --> 00:00:49.765
The Met's got their guy in signing David Sterns to be their president of baseball operations.
00:00:49.765 --> 00:00:55.539
I think Billy Epler's future is likely to remain with it.
00:00:56.482 --> 00:00:58.409
They've already decided that they want him there.
00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:03.006
I think it's a good combination between the two of them.
00:01:03.006 --> 00:01:13.430
David Sterns is going to suffer a little bit because I think there are some Met fans like, well, they got David Sterns, they should make the playoffs next year and they're going to maybe vie for a playoff spot, at best the next year.
00:01:13.471 --> 00:01:18.850
I don't think they're going to be evaluating their progress as a franchise on whether or not they make the playoffs next year.
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He is there with the pitching lab that he set up in Milwaukee, and to make this organization the Mets organization, I should say better from top to bottom, along the lines, as they keep saying, of the Dodgers and the Braves
00:01:32.304 --> 00:01:39.927
A guy that got dismissed this week, interestingly, was Chaim Bloom up in Boston was let go by the Red Sox.
00:01:41.168 --> 00:01:43.513
I don't think he ever recovered from the Mookie Betts trade.
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I think that was the fact that he didn't get Betts to resign, I think ultimately doomed him.
00:01:50.221 --> 00:02:01.929
And then to go ahead and what he did in return was bring in Trevor Story and paid Trevor Story not as much money as he would have had to pay Mookie Betts, but a ton of money, and that has not worked out and some things have worked out.
00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:05.000
The Red Sox have punched above their weight.
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.371
I think people would say the last couple of seasons that people were not expecting them to be good.
00:02:09.371 --> 00:02:14.180
And they've been plucky, I guess, but at the end of the day they are still last now.
00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:24.287
In the American League East the Yankees have risen up and overtaken them these last few weeks, but they've still been a team that's generally like well, they're not as bad as we thought, but they're still not good.
00:02:24.388 --> 00:02:27.582
Well, they have some rookies that we talked about in the last podcast that are coming.
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So I love their manager.
00:02:29.007 --> 00:02:38.062
Like I mentioned, I heard him talk about Alex Korsing that maybe, general manager, is something he'd think about down the road and I think Haim Blum to that point.
00:02:38.062 --> 00:02:50.888
He was there in a division where you've got the Orioles and the Rays doing more with less and the Red Sox spending money like the Yankees do and not doing quite as well, and something had to give and it was Haim.
00:02:50.907 --> 00:02:54.441
Blum, just stunning to me that he's gone before Cashman is.
00:02:54.441 --> 00:02:55.063
Yeah well.
00:02:55.144 --> 00:03:06.925
I you know I'm a Cashman fan actually, so I will go right now and say I think that guy's done an amazing job over the years and can a guy kind of go south later in his career possibly and lose his touch?
00:03:06.925 --> 00:03:08.390
I guess maybe that's true.
00:03:08.390 --> 00:03:16.425
I think the Yankees were poorly constructed, so you would lay that on the general manager this season as much as the Mets were poorly constructed Right.
00:03:16.425 --> 00:03:17.953
Lay that on Billy Epler the same way.
00:03:18.213 --> 00:03:23.073
I think, I think there would be a lot of fans in New York that would want both of those guys gone after this season.
00:03:23.514 --> 00:03:28.829
So there's about some teams have, as we, as we record this on Sunday afternoon.
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By the time the games end today, I think the Dodgers are going to have something like 11 games left, and other teams have as many as 14 games left.
00:03:38.145 --> 00:03:43.120
There's only 14 baseball days left in the season starting Monday morning.
00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:48.925
So some teams are going to be playing virtually every day, some teams are going to have more off days kind of spread out in there.
00:03:48.925 --> 00:03:54.987
But you're really getting into the final stretch here and there's only a couple, there's really only one divisional.
00:03:54.987 --> 00:04:00.230
You know two divisional races left in the American League East, in the American League West.
00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:05.170
Yeah, the NL Central is close, but the Brewers kind of still live by their whole.
00:04:05.191 --> 00:04:08.503
I think they have at least a five or six game lead up this week.
00:04:09.987 --> 00:04:16.005
But the the AL West is still a dogfight because the Rangers, the Astros and the Mariners are virtual tie.
00:04:16.187 --> 00:04:20.704
Well, the Rangers and the Astros and the Mariners are just slipped a little behind a half game back.
00:04:20.783 --> 00:04:34.721
And then in the AL, like we were saying, you know the Orioles, you know, had opened up such a big lead, but the rays, you know, after scuffling a little bit about the around the all star break, have really Kind of come on strong and played good down the stretch here.
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Do you remember how far the Razor ahead at the beginning?
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Soon, we were talking about that team being like one of the great teams of all time, because they started out ridiculous.
00:04:41.935 --> 00:04:44.303
We should have learned our lesson from the Yankees last year.
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Right, right and, and you knew they'd come back.
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But I don't think we would have thought that the Orioles would have been the team to run them down Right and be able to stay in there and John might one of my favorite Oriole pitchers had a good game in his first game.
00:04:56.807 --> 00:05:03.754
Back John means, and how he pitches in the playoffs If he pitches in the playoffs, because you wonder if the guy can pitch much more than five innings.
00:05:04.115 --> 00:05:04.315
He hasn't.
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I just worry that young Orioles team, who a lot of the advanced stats don't favor them that much, runs into a brick wall in the playoffs and bounces out almost a little Unceremoniously.
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I don't think that'll happen because I think they're too good a team, but I worry that it could.
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I like the versatility of the team, particularly on offense, and their bullpen, with Butista, felix Batista being, you know, at the front end of it or the back end, I guess I don't know how you'd say it.
00:05:32.608 --> 00:05:36.507
He, he of the gives them a different dimension.
00:05:36.507 --> 00:05:38.355
T of the UCL problem, right?
00:05:38.355 --> 00:05:48.927
So he's gonna pitch through the UCL and that's really interesting to me, right, because Shohei has a UCL, he's done pitching and he's not gonna pitch again as he packed his bag and went back to Japan.
00:05:48.927 --> 00:05:54.355
Obviously, but they're gonna still try to have this guy pitch to a possible beat instead of having surgery because they have a chance.
00:05:54.995 --> 00:06:03.762
That's wild to me that is what, but granted, he's only throwing one inning as opposed to Shohei being a starter, and they're gonna take longer for his arm to fall off.
00:06:03.762 --> 00:06:09.834
They're gonna try and see if they can get through it, but we don't know that they're actually gonna get so far at to using him in a game.
00:06:09.834 --> 00:06:12.803
They're just trying to see if it's possible right now.
00:06:12.964 --> 00:06:26.220
Yeah, I just, you know, and it's so critical for for all the teams and I saw Kelly troop put out this week the fact her three inning minute on, you know, hey, it's a crapshoot as you get into the, into the tournament, right, there's 12 teams out of 30.
00:06:26.220 --> 00:06:30.800
She mentioned only 50% of the teams make the playoffs and yeah, we, we all know that.
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But the, the idea that your bullpen is is such a more important part now at this point.
00:06:36.564 --> 00:06:43.553
The Phillies made it to the World Series last year, we think in part because their bullpen went off the charts and pitched way above their.
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You know their abilities and that's how they were able to get all the way to the World Series.
00:06:46.834 --> 00:06:53.038
The other teams that are the big contenders all have really good bullpens and that's what I think.
00:06:53.038 --> 00:06:58.357
This, this playoff format now really requires a team to go all the way you can get in Right.
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But if you don't have that there, you're not gonna necessarily make it all the way or even that far at all.
00:07:03.216 --> 00:07:05.415
You know, possibly right, I agree with you.
00:07:05.415 --> 00:07:12.274
Yeah, yeah, the teams that have elite bullpens are, but those are the teams that are the elite bullpens are the teams that are also Leading the divisions is kind of go hand-in-hand.
00:07:12.976 --> 00:07:13.137
So.
00:07:13.137 --> 00:07:24.689
So it makes me think why the Padres who aren't in it decided they might have a chance, that they've got hater, they've got a Martinez, they got a bunch of guys in the bullpen that are really good, that pitched well last year, whereas the Mets looked at their bullpen once.
00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:25.514
They didn't have Edwin Diaz.
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They're like, well, there's no way.
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Even if they had Edwin Diaz, I don't know if that bullpen was enough.
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Yeah to compete.
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It would have been hard for them to win a World Series without the starting pitching being Overwhelmingly good and the Yankees kind of had the opposite right this year is they just didn't.
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Besides Garrett Cole, they got nothing consistent from their starters.
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They couldn't get to their bullpen, which is a pretty good bullpen.
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So I think in the playoffs you're gonna see.
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You know these teams that are kind of hanging on.
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They have the angels.
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They didn't have a bullpen that was gonna get anywhere, so they didn't even bother competing at the trade deadline.
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The Rangers They've got a nice bullpen, but I don't know if they make it in the Mariners.
00:08:00.329 --> 00:08:01.535
That's a good bullpen.
00:08:01.735 --> 00:08:09.742
Yeah and and so I think I think these teams are gonna, you know, kind of make it through and that that the wild cards you know are going to, you know, make some noise.
00:08:09.742 --> 00:08:17.949
But it's gonna be dependent on, on, you know, their relievers to help them get into the World Series if they can yeah, I tend to think that you're generally gonna see.
00:08:18.009 --> 00:08:22.697
That's why the Astros and the Dodgers is because they seem to find a guy every year in that Bullpen.
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That's unbelievably good and having a season.
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The Reyes have kind of shown that and you know, definitely like the Orioles if they can't get an effective Batista back.
00:08:31.574 --> 00:08:35.567
I don't think they have that nearly to the same degree and you brought up.
00:08:35.807 --> 00:08:39.278
You stole my thunder because you talked about the, the Astros and and the Dodgers.
00:08:39.278 --> 00:08:43.986
Both of those teams like there's weird things that when I'm with their starting pitchers Do you think about all the guys that went then.
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Same thing at Tampa, by the way, yeah, and Rasmussen Springer, all gone for the year.
00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.306
The Dodgers, like everybody.
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I mean I think Kershaw is like the only guy that was there and he's not necessarily a six inning pitcher.
00:08:55.062 --> 00:08:58.414
So I and the same thing with the Astros.
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You know they're down to where you know some of their guys aren't pitching anymore, and then Framber Valdez is sort of shaky.
00:09:03.995 --> 00:09:05.804
You know a whole bunch of guys have been shaky.
00:09:05.804 --> 00:09:07.995
So JP France might get a start in the playoffs.
00:09:07.995 --> 00:09:09.822
Yeah, I don't think you would have thought that before this season.
00:09:09.822 --> 00:09:12.139
So you know the bullpen's will help them.
00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:16.668
But in the playoffs, you know, the starters don't necessarily go six, seven innings anyway.
00:09:16.668 --> 00:09:44.561
And one starter who isn't doing that is I think I put out this week, and of course Jason Stark had already written an article about it before I put it out Zach Greenke is one in fifteen the season and he that is one of the worst might be the worst season for a starting pitcher who's gonna be a Hall of Fame player in the history of Major League baseball worst, final season I mean, I guess well my lights, a worse season, I mean just on record.
00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:54.274
And we went and we over, we over evaluate lumbar one, one and fifteen is pretty right, but he's playing for a crappy team, right, right, you know as I'm like gotten like no run support.
00:09:54.274 --> 00:10:01.219
No, he's hasn't pitched as bad you know, and I didn't realize that I guess in his first season he went something like one and eleven Zach.
00:10:01.219 --> 00:10:06.188
Greenke, so he's not wild, so we're assuming he's not gonna pitch anymore after this season.
00:10:06.864 --> 00:10:07.673
I think you said he's done.
00:10:07.956 --> 00:10:10.715
Yeah and so and and we think he's gonna be a Hall of Famer.
00:10:10.715 --> 00:10:16.547
But I was surprised at some of the comments that came back this week and how not everybody agrees with me and us?
00:10:16.648 --> 00:10:17.048
I think no.
00:10:17.048 --> 00:10:31.880
I mean, we heard a lot of really good things and we always love hearing things from people, you know, from the fans and from people talking about it, because I do remember one of the Royals fans saying like if you adjusted Greenke, even if he was receiving like league average run support, he would not be nearly as bad like he's gotten.
00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:40.099
Like I think he's got like under two runs a game or something wild in terms of Run support, so that can definitely lead to a guy having like a one-off bad season.
00:10:40.219 --> 00:10:43.888
But I think that that he was five and 17 in his rookie year.
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That's my mistake.
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Right, but I think that he's still a Hall of Famer and I know some people out there that we saw on Twitter and stuff were saying is he a Hall of Famer?
00:10:50.506 --> 00:10:52.467
But I'm like, is that Greenke isn't a Hall of Famer?
00:10:52.467 --> 00:10:55.724
Are you really telling me there's only three Hall of Fame pictures from this era?
00:10:55.724 --> 00:10:57.288
I agree that's a great point.
00:10:57.640 --> 00:10:58.907
I just don't see it that way.
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And he's 34 strikeouts shy of 3000.
00:11:01.928 --> 00:11:08.966
And I almost could go out and say if you strike out 3000 hitters now you have to do things that say you're not a Hall of.
00:11:08.986 --> 00:11:09.629
Fame picture.
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It's kind of hard.
00:11:10.652 --> 00:11:13.311
You don't strike out 3000 guys by accident.
00:11:13.388 --> 00:11:13.844
Right, right.
00:11:13.844 --> 00:11:19.489
And it's not like Greenke's striking out guys like he's probably not going to get the 3000 strikeouts this year.
00:11:19.580 --> 00:11:22.350
He's not going to necessarily start out 34 guys in the final.
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He's that.
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That's what it would kill you to finish with 2,991.
00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:30.791
I don't think he's going to come back to strike out nine guys next season and then retire.
00:11:30.791 --> 00:11:31.702
This is Zach Greenke.
00:11:31.702 --> 00:11:32.768
You're talking about Might.
00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:35.107
Yeah, that is a very Zach Greenke thing to do.
00:11:35.148 --> 00:11:38.198
By the way, I come back enough to get the number and then just be done with it.
00:11:38.198 --> 00:11:39.345
I think he walks out.
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He gets a 3000 strikeout.
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The ending's not even over, just walks off the field.
00:11:43.341 --> 00:11:56.330
I want to go back to the Angels for a moment because obviously you know, the news came out this week that show he was spotted in an airport in Japan, yeah so, and then all of a sudden, the next day it came out that he was out for the season with an oblique injuries and that's why he wasn't going to play anymore.
00:11:56.330 --> 00:12:00.424
So he's injured, obviously, and you know whether or not.
00:12:00.424 --> 00:12:06.350
And then the strange thing with Rendon, with his, his, oh, yeah, my legs actually broken, he's been broken for a while.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:07.163
They just didn't say it.
00:12:07.163 --> 00:12:13.532
Ok, and that signing for their Angels has got to be one of the all time.
00:12:13.532 --> 00:12:18.032
So and trout saying that obviously I want to maybe be traded.
00:12:18.032 --> 00:12:19.966
If you want to trade me, I'll listen to being trade.
00:12:19.966 --> 00:12:23.174
So Joe Posniewski put out this this week and this is pretty amazing.
00:12:23.174 --> 00:12:31.754
Over the past eight seasons, you could argue that the Angels have had the best player in Major League Baseball every season, that being either trout or Otani.
00:12:32.015 --> 00:12:39.628
Yeah, yes, aaron Judge won the MVP, but let's say that that year Otani because he pitched and all that stuff was was was most viable in that respect.
00:12:39.628 --> 00:12:44.551
Anyway, in all eight of those seasons the Angels had a losing record.
00:12:44.551 --> 00:12:49.650
How can you have the best player in baseball on your team?
00:12:49.650 --> 00:12:55.506
What's a team and have a losing record every season Can I don't even know that's possible to ever happen.
00:12:55.527 --> 00:13:01.772
You know, in baseball before Well, generally no, because the best players are usually on the best teams.
00:13:01.772 --> 00:13:08.852
It's unusual for really good players to be on a crappy team, but the Angels have basically not run that they've.
00:13:08.852 --> 00:13:19.645
They've tied up their money in the other guys and none of the other guys they've brought in at any point whether it's to bat around a Tony and trout or to pitch around a Tony and trout have given them anything.
00:13:20.302 --> 00:13:21.480
And I think he's mentioned the pitching right.
00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:28.519
So, besides Ohtani as a pitcher, okay, can you name one angels pitcher over the past eight years and say, well, yeah, that guy was a really good pitcher?
00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:30.859
I think it's, and you can't say Jared Weaver, because that was before that.
00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:32.303
Right, no, there's no guy that you could.
00:13:32.303 --> 00:13:35.706
There's probably a guy that has had a good season for them.
00:13:35.706 --> 00:13:45.267
What would be the kind of thing where you don't remember that and you didn't really know about it, and so I think that does not having any kind of consistent pitching either in the rotation or the bullpen.
00:13:45.267 --> 00:13:50.884
And then you you top that off with guys getting hurt all the time, having virtually no lineup protection.
00:13:50.884 --> 00:13:58.913
That yeah sure, both of those guys are remarkable, but you can't carry a team to wins by yourself, even as good as they are.
00:13:59.160 --> 00:14:07.320
Clearly it's not the case and it tells me that because I have trouble naming angel pitchers that that maybe pitching was part of the problem.
00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:14.321
Even they tried to bring in Cinder guard and he was already kind of toast when he got there, so that that wasn't like bringing in a big name picture when.
00:14:14.321 --> 00:14:19.404
Where have they gone and brought somebody in saying, oh, these guys are serious, they're bringing in a picture right now, they just are not doing it.
00:14:19.404 --> 00:14:29.643
So I just hope for angel fans sake that already Marino, that if they're going to tear it down now, if they let those guys go, well, it's not an if Otani is gone.
00:14:29.682 --> 00:14:31.248
That much is obvious at this point.
00:14:31.568 --> 00:14:36.532
Right, I'd say that the chances of Otani being an angel next year are less than 5%.
00:14:36.841 --> 00:14:37.946
And it's not going to happen.
00:14:37.946 --> 00:14:38.142
He's.
00:14:38.142 --> 00:14:39.399
There is no way he's going to be an angel.
00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:41.105
You're saying 0% chance.
00:14:41.607 --> 00:14:43.866
Wow, and trout, I don't know.
00:14:43.866 --> 00:14:47.018
I mean, does he want to be part of a rebuild, and but who's going to trade for him?
00:14:47.078 --> 00:14:48.913
So somebody will trade for trout.
00:14:48.913 --> 00:14:52.001
Yeah yeah, he's too good a player not to so.
00:14:52.686 --> 00:14:55.039
I wanted to talk about Cole Regans.
00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:57.889
Did you did you see the video this week and I know you should put this up?
00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:16.649
So Cole Regans picture was pitching against four Kansas city came over in the Chapman deal and he's he's pitching Pitching against the blue jays and he catches his spike in the first one on the mountain and falls down and the ball goes flying to the backstop Right he Rick Yankees like two pitches in a row three in a row.
00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.950
Then the next pitch he loses the ball and it goes flying out and so they scored the tying and the winning run.
00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:30.147
And then the next pitch he gets a spike caught again on the third time and it goes wild and they lose the game and I think they think the go ahead went.
00:15:30.147 --> 00:15:36.182
I wasn't over in that it wasn't a walk off situation, but that was the strangest three batter sequence that.
00:15:36.241 --> 00:15:37.144
I've ever seen.
00:15:37.306 --> 00:15:40.427
Yeah, three pitch sequence, you're right, three pitch sequence that I have ever seen.
00:15:40.427 --> 00:15:44.010
So, yeah, go back if you can and check out Cole Regans and see what it did.
00:15:44.010 --> 00:15:45.182
And I think I posted on the going.
00:15:45.182 --> 00:15:47.490
What is somebody kidding me here?
00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:48.041
Did this?
00:15:48.041 --> 00:15:49.587
This didn't really happen, did it?
00:15:49.587 --> 00:15:50.484
Well, it obviously did.
00:15:51.062 --> 00:15:53.581
So, yeah, that was and then yeah, and then we had a.
00:15:53.581 --> 00:15:58.782
Matt Waldron get the first knuckleball win since 2018 with Boston.
00:15:58.782 --> 00:16:01.846
Stephen Wright, nice to have a knuckleballer in the league again.
00:16:01.846 --> 00:16:04.648
It's always fun when there's at least one of them floating around.
00:16:04.648 --> 00:16:05.671
You know, literally.
00:16:05.671 --> 00:16:06.061
Yeah, I think.
00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:11.905
Mickey Janis was the, for the Orioles was in the league like three or four years ago was the last knuckle better so this would be he wasn't getting any wins.
00:16:11.905 --> 00:16:16.245
That would, that would and this would make the 33rd knuckleballer in the major leagues in the history of major league.
00:16:16.245 --> 00:16:17.666
Very exclusive club Right.
00:16:17.666 --> 00:16:23.105
We did an episode on knuckleballers and I was stunned at the time that we're only 32 and now there are 33.
00:16:23.105 --> 00:16:26.610
How about the players who had really good weeks this week?
00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:28.544
Um, you know, uh.
00:16:28.985 --> 00:16:33.450
I think the most interesting thing is that you know you have some guys on bad teams that had great weeks.
00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:40.889
Bobby Whit Jr is still kind of showing that he is going to be a superstar level player for Kansas city going forward.
00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:50.265
You just have to hope that he's not in a Mike trout, shohei Otani situation where the Royals are unable to kind of feel the team around him to take advantage of how good he is.
00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:52.908
And Luis Arias had another good week.
00:16:52.908 --> 00:16:54.667
That's not a bad team per se.
00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:57.625
I know there's, they're hanging around there 77 and 72.
00:16:57.625 --> 00:17:00.662
They're in that third wildcard spot, I think they're.
00:17:00.662 --> 00:17:07.096
They're certainly the type of team that that that has a shot going down and I think both them and the twins would say that was a good trade for them.
00:17:07.155 --> 00:17:07.839
I was going to ask you that.
00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.769
So Pablo Lopez also on the list for having a terrific week?
00:17:10.769 --> 00:17:14.150
Uh and and so who won that trade?
00:17:14.150 --> 00:17:19.119
And you're saying it's a, both teams want it's a, it's a win win for a change.
00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:20.425
It's a win, win for a change.
00:17:20.425 --> 00:17:33.967
Then they Marlin's got a guy that's, you know, a integral part of their lineup and the twins got a really good picture, and I think for both teams it made sense, because Arias is the type of guy that you know.
00:17:33.967 --> 00:17:53.828
You need a team that's kind of having a special season in some respects, like the Marlins, to really take advantage of, and having another big, strong pitcher in there for Minnesota is kind of why they've been able to just sort of stay afloat in that central where, despite the lousy season that Correa is, if he would have had a you know a season that they expected, I think they would have been way ahead and put that division away.
00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:59.065
And then you have a guy like trade Turner who just turned it on after he got that standing ovation.
00:17:59.065 --> 00:18:02.558
It was like a light clicked on for him and he suddenly remembered how to play baseball.
00:18:02.578 --> 00:18:05.388
Yeah, his B war for the season is up now to 3.7.
00:18:05.388 --> 00:18:09.090
So he'll maybe he'll end around four, which will be a down year for trade Turner.
00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:09.421
It'll.
00:18:09.421 --> 00:18:17.058
Just when you look at his year and I think this is something to look at, because we were looking at you know, how did Kyle Lewis win the rookie of the year in 2020?
00:18:17.058 --> 00:18:19.186
That's like, well, it was a 60 game sample.
00:18:19.186 --> 00:18:26.042
And so if you look at trade Turner and you isolate the beginning of his year, oh my God, he was just God awful, he was terrible.
00:18:26.042 --> 00:18:36.268
But then when you you add in the full context of his season, it's just a slight downturn, but all of our perceptions of trade Turner's this year as if he's been truly horrid.
00:18:36.268 --> 00:18:38.046
I think that can happen with teams.
00:18:38.046 --> 00:18:51.546
Sometimes, too, you had a team like the rays come roaring out to this unbelievable start, Best record of all time Well, but then they have a little bit of a struggle, but because they started off that way, you very much get the mindset that that's what they are for that season.
00:18:51.846 --> 00:18:52.348
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:52.348 --> 00:18:55.146
And another guy who I think you know as med fans.
00:18:55.146 --> 00:19:02.021
We're big Lindor fans and we think he's underrated, which is hard for a guy getting paid as much as he does to be underrated.
00:19:02.021 --> 00:19:11.983
But you know, really good defensive player having a great defensive season, really good hitter this guy is having one of the all time great seasons at shortstop and it's going under the radar.
00:19:11.983 --> 00:19:12.826
Is Corey Seeger?
00:19:12.826 --> 00:19:14.846
Right, corey Seeger has been unbelievable.
00:19:14.846 --> 00:19:19.325
I mean, I mean the numbers that this guy is putting up in the season he's having is not to be believed.
00:19:19.325 --> 00:19:19.907
And he's done it.
00:19:19.907 --> 00:19:25.624
He got hurt for a little bit of time, which hurts his sort of MVP standing a little bit.
00:19:25.683 --> 00:19:29.819
You know not, I guess Joe Hayes going to win it anyway, but Joe Hayes was always going to win this year's MVP, right, right.
00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:36.019
But, seeger, you know that when they gave him all that money to come from the Dodgers over there, he's showing that he was clearly worth that.
00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:41.146
I mean, and that team is hanging around a large part because he is, you know, a guy you can't get out when you need to.
00:19:41.146 --> 00:19:48.875
Royce Lewis is having with the three grand slams in four grand slams in nine games.
00:19:48.895 --> 00:19:49.718
Yeah, another one.
00:19:49.858 --> 00:19:50.863
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's.
00:19:50.863 --> 00:19:53.756
That's hasn't happened in ever.
00:19:53.756 --> 00:19:54.519
I don't even know.
00:19:54.740 --> 00:20:00.618
I had an unbelievable streak of grand slams, but grand slams are as much a thing of circumstances as anything else.
00:20:00.618 --> 00:20:04.579
It's really hard to be a guy that's good at hitting them, because you have to get up with the bases loaded.
00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:05.773
You have no control over that.
00:20:05.977 --> 00:20:06.259
But it helped.
00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:13.335
It helped the twins certainly, you know, maintain their lead and sort of have them sort of comfortably you know when they're already comfortably.
00:20:13.335 --> 00:20:15.787
Yeah, well, because the Guardians are so inept.
00:20:15.787 --> 00:20:18.199
So inept.
00:20:18.199 --> 00:20:25.156
I don't understand how that team went into the season thinking, yeah, we couldn't hit last year, we won't change anything and maybe we'll just hit more.
00:20:25.538 --> 00:20:25.700
Oh yeah.
00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:28.753
Well, we'll clearly get the same year out of Andres Jimenez again.
00:20:29.055 --> 00:20:30.099
Well, yeah, right, that hurt them.
00:20:30.099 --> 00:20:33.460
And then they traded one of their better hitters for Noah Cindergarten.
00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.756
And then they cut Cindergarten as bizarre.
00:20:35.756 --> 00:20:39.319
Right, I mean they must have really not like Ahmed Rosario to do that to the guy.
00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:41.945
I mean well, I don't know what he did, Playing great for the Dodgers.
00:20:41.945 --> 00:20:45.680
So, and Matt Olson, I guess we've got to give a shout out to the brave.
00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:50.026
You've set the brave single season record for home runs, right when they're breaking Andrew Jones.
00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:53.075
And I don't think I really would have thought that Andrew Jones had the all-time record.
00:20:53.075 --> 00:20:54.880
I would feel something like Eddie Matthews I would have, I would have, I would have.
00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:56.359
I knew Jones never hit 50.
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:57.987
I knew Jones hit 51.
00:20:57.987 --> 00:21:02.888
And I think Aaron never did Right, so that's kind of how I knew he had to be up there Right.
00:21:02.909 --> 00:21:03.089
Right.
00:21:03.089 --> 00:21:12.106
So you know, Matt Olson, I guess making Braves fans forget about Freddie Freeman, I don't know Freddie Freeman's having a ridiculous Freddie.
00:21:12.126 --> 00:21:17.067
Freeman like season, though If you're a brave fan, yeah, freddie is great, but you have Matt Olson, so you don't care.
00:21:17.300 --> 00:21:19.193
And so you can really tell yourself you're a brave fan.
00:21:19.193 --> 00:21:28.051
Going well, we didn't spend as much on Matt Olson as we would have spent in Freddie Freeman, so we were able to sign Michael Harris and potential Cy Young winner and Spencer Strauss.
00:21:28.051 --> 00:21:28.613
Yeah, I'll be.
00:21:28.859 --> 00:21:31.048
I don't think it's the Cy Young this year.
00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:32.204
Yeah, let's talk about that.
00:21:32.204 --> 00:21:39.432
You were pretty clear on that when I asked you and I when I told you that he's got 200 and more than 250 strikeouts and like 180 odd innings.
00:21:39.432 --> 00:21:42.368
That's pretty ridiculous for a starting pitcher.
00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:48.373
He's also got like a four, almost a four something ERA, yeah, and it's just it's hard for me to have a guy like.
00:21:48.373 --> 00:21:48.634
It's not.
00:21:48.634 --> 00:21:52.931
It's not the pitcher that strikes out the most guys that wins the Cy Young.
00:21:53.864 --> 00:21:57.450
No, it doesn't, Because Dwight Gooden would have won more than the one that he did Exactly.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:09.210
And so I think there are other guys in the NL that have had better seasons that will get it, whether that's Justin Steele, I think Zach Gallen heard his chances by having a stinker against the Mets the other night.
00:22:09.210 --> 00:22:16.570
I think Kodai Senga will not win the Cy Young, but he'll finish in the voting for both rookie of the year and Cy Young.
00:22:16.570 --> 00:22:18.000
What about Blake Snell?
00:22:18.444 --> 00:22:19.700
I think Blake Snell could win the Cy Young.
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:24.180
I think he's probably the guy who's going to get it and and you know the Cub fans love this Justin Steele.
00:22:24.541 --> 00:22:33.137
Justin Steele has an unbelievable like final two starts to the season and like really powers the Cubs into getting a wild card spot or the division somehow.
00:22:33.137 --> 00:22:36.176
Right, right, right, then I think it's either if it gets Blake Snell.
00:22:36.499 --> 00:22:38.818
Yeah, and that's you know you can do that these days.
00:22:38.818 --> 00:22:43.559
Right, you didn't used to be able to win a Cy Young for a team that actually isn't in the playoff race.
00:22:43.861 --> 00:22:51.720
Well, I think, because Felix Hernandez sort of got his career Cy Young that one year where they're like, ok, he kind of has to get one at some point because he deserves it.
00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:57.859
So he just they just gave it to him in one season where, like he didn't have that, he had like 12 or 14 wins that year.
00:22:57.859 --> 00:22:59.546
It's like the lowest number of wins ever.
00:22:59.586 --> 00:23:00.347
Right A Cy Young win.
00:23:00.347 --> 00:23:00.930
Yeah, right Right.
00:23:01.762 --> 00:23:08.446
And I think ever since then they're a lot more OK with giving it to a guy that's on a knock, the Grom would be a guy who the same thing.
00:23:08.487 --> 00:23:17.567
It wasn't about wins and losses, and I think we know that let's let's wrap it up now and talk a little bit about the year that baseball has had, just because the stats came out.
00:23:17.567 --> 00:23:24.303
We know we'll summarize the season, but from a standpoint of people going out to the ballpark to watch games, TV is up.
00:23:24.544 --> 00:23:25.448
attendance is up.
00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:34.413
It's a great thing, it's it's really impressive that the the average MLB attendance, by the way, in an early August was 38,000 fans a game.
00:23:34.413 --> 00:23:36.643
I didn't realize the average.
00:23:36.643 --> 00:23:39.049
Obviously there are teams with more than that and teams with less.
00:23:39.049 --> 00:23:40.948
And you got to carry the A's and all that.
00:23:40.948 --> 00:23:46.131
So all 15 games that day, on Saturday, august 5th, through 30,000 people or more.
00:23:46.131 --> 00:23:47.343
So you hear people's out.
00:23:47.343 --> 00:23:49.730
Baseball is, you know, going down the tubes.
00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:57.211
And I think that was that was the narrative up until this year, but I think the pace of play changes have really helped bring people back to the game.
00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:00.125
Boy that seems to me to be.
00:24:00.125 --> 00:24:02.922
I just can't believe it would happen that quickly that everybody.
00:24:02.922 --> 00:24:05.970
Hey, marge, you know the games are a lot faster now.
00:24:05.970 --> 00:24:08.647
Let's go to the game, let's get in the car and we can be back in two and a half hours.
00:24:08.647 --> 00:24:10.246
I don't see that happening?
00:24:10.339 --> 00:24:12.347
I think what it is is people are more engaged again.
00:24:12.347 --> 00:24:21.428
More people are watching more games on television, so there are more fans and more people are following than they have in previous seasons, and that's going to get people out to the games.
00:24:21.488 --> 00:24:31.309
More People are going to the ballpark, though in numbers, and we know how expensive it is to go to a major league game, and I don't know if it's an economic harbinger or anything like that.
00:24:31.309 --> 00:24:40.227
But to think that you know when people are saying the game has lost something, that people are willing to pony up and go, and I mean you drop a good or major league game, you drop a lot of money, that's a lot, not just on the tickets, by the way.
00:24:40.259 --> 00:24:45.769
But now I think the fact that it's not something that isn't that it is a laborious affair, which it could be.
00:24:45.769 --> 00:24:54.250
I remember going to games and you would just get into those late endings where you start getting all the pitching changes Right and the game just drags out and becomes unfun at a certain point.
00:24:54.250 --> 00:25:05.093
I think it isn't as much that way, and so it just feels like a more enjoyable experience for your dollar and the pitch lock I think we might have mentioned or not will be in effect for the entire playoff.
00:25:05.113 --> 00:25:06.101
We talked about that so.
00:25:06.141 --> 00:25:11.994
I think that you know that's basically nodding to the fact that this is working and, for the point you make out, maybe it's keeping people more engaged.
00:25:11.994 --> 00:25:15.482
They don't want people to turn off in the playoff game because they want, don't want, to watch.
00:25:15.482 --> 00:25:19.588
You know the pitchers stand out there and you know, you know, look like they don't know what's going on.
00:25:19.588 --> 00:25:21.121
Oh yeah, exactly so.
00:25:21.121 --> 00:25:25.131
So we got, you know, two division winners sort of set aside.
00:25:25.131 --> 00:25:28.228
We've the next one have seven more games are going to be down to the last seven games.
00:25:28.228 --> 00:25:32.955
Do you think we'll have any more clinching between now and when we record next Sunday?
00:25:32.955 --> 00:25:34.319
For sure you think one or the other.
00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:35.104
So you think that.
00:25:35.104 --> 00:25:36.171
Who do you think it's going to be?
00:25:36.171 --> 00:25:36.994
Twins will clinch?
00:25:36.994 --> 00:25:37.819
You think the twins will clinch?
00:25:37.940 --> 00:25:39.266
Twins will clinch their division.
00:25:39.266 --> 00:25:42.609
I think the Brewers could end up clinching their division.
00:25:42.609 --> 00:25:47.724
Okay, and then you only have the AL East and West remaining going in, and then the wildcard races.
00:25:47.724 --> 00:25:57.592
And then, the last week of the season, it'll be all those playoff teams slotting their pitchers to line them up to pitch in the playoffs, especially in the NL, with that final wildcard spot, it's going to be a dog fight to the end.
00:25:57.821 --> 00:25:58.167
No doubt.
00:00:00.221 --> 00:00:04.953
The Mets gained a PoBO and the Angels lose a star and they might trade another one away.
00:00:04.953 --> 00:00:11.622
We had division races sort of come to a close and we had the first knuckleballer post to win in about five years.
00:00:11.622 --> 00:00:14.170
It's been a wild week in baseball and let's talk about it.
00:00:14.170 --> 00:00:19.083
Hi, welcome to Almost Cooperstown.
00:00:19.083 --> 00:00:22.592
I'm Mark and this is Gordon, and we love talking about baseball.
00:00:22.592 --> 00:00:28.451
We've had a busy, busy week and I was on and off the field.
00:00:28.451 --> 00:00:31.809
We had a GM in Washington get signed on long term.
00:00:31.829 --> 00:00:40.368
Happy that I think I mentioned that in last week's podcast that Mike Rizzo was sort of dangling there after they signed Dave Martinez, they made the deal with Mike Rizzo smart for the Nationals.
00:00:40.368 --> 00:00:44.426
Maybe the Lerners will decide to put some money in the team, but that we don't know yet.
00:00:44.908 --> 00:00:49.765
The Met's got their guy in signing David Sterns to be their president of baseball operations.
00:00:49.765 --> 00:00:55.539
I think Billy Epler's future is likely to remain with it.
00:00:56.482 --> 00:00:58.409
They've already decided that they want him there.
00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:03.006
I think it's a good combination between the two of them.
00:01:03.006 --> 00:01:13.430
David Sterns is going to suffer a little bit because I think there are some Met fans like, well, they got David Sterns, they should make the playoffs next year and they're going to maybe vie for a playoff spot, at best the next year.
00:01:13.471 --> 00:01:18.850
I don't think they're going to be evaluating their progress as a franchise on whether or not they make the playoffs next year.
00:01:19.311 --> 00:01:30.881
He is there with the pitching lab that he set up in Milwaukee, and to make this organization the Mets organization, I should say better from top to bottom, along the lines, as they keep saying, of the Dodgers and the Braves
00:01:32.304 --> 00:01:39.927
A guy that got dismissed this week, interestingly, was Chaim Bloom up in Boston was let go by the Red Sox.
00:01:41.168 --> 00:01:43.513
I don't think he ever recovered from the Mookie Betts trade.
00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:49.579
I think that was the fact that he didn't get Betts to resign, I think ultimately doomed him.
00:01:50.221 --> 00:02:01.929
And then to go ahead and what he did in return was bring in Trevor Story and paid Trevor Story not as much money as he would have had to pay Mookie Betts, but a ton of money, and that has not worked out and some things have worked out.
00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:05.000
The Red Sox have punched above their weight.
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.371
I think people would say the last couple of seasons that people were not expecting them to be good.
00:02:09.371 --> 00:02:14.180
And they've been plucky, I guess, but at the end of the day they are still last now.
00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:24.287
In the American League East the Yankees have risen up and overtaken them these last few weeks, but they've still been a team that's generally like well, they're not as bad as we thought, but they're still not good.
00:02:24.388 --> 00:02:27.582
Well, they have some rookies that we talked about in the last podcast that are coming.
00:02:27.582 --> 00:02:29.007
So I love their manager.
00:02:29.007 --> 00:02:38.062
Like I mentioned, I heard him talk about Alex Korsing that maybe, general manager, is something he'd think about down the road and I think Haim Blum to that point.
00:02:38.062 --> 00:02:50.888
He was there in a division where you've got the Orioles and the Rays doing more with less and the Red Sox spending money like the Yankees do and not doing quite as well, and something had to give and it was Haim.
00:02:50.907 --> 00:02:54.441
Blum, just stunning to me that he's gone before Cashman is.
00:02:54.441 --> 00:02:55.063
Yeah well.
00:02:55.144 --> 00:03:06.925
I you know I'm a Cashman fan actually, so I will go right now and say I think that guy's done an amazing job over the years and can a guy kind of go south later in his career possibly and lose his touch?
00:03:06.925 --> 00:03:08.390
I guess maybe that's true.
00:03:08.390 --> 00:03:16.425
I think the Yankees were poorly constructed, so you would lay that on the general manager this season as much as the Mets were poorly constructed Right.
00:03:16.425 --> 00:03:17.953
Lay that on Billy Epler the same way.
00:03:18.213 --> 00:03:23.073
I think, I think there would be a lot of fans in New York that would want both of those guys gone after this season.
00:03:23.514 --> 00:03:28.829
So there's about some teams have, as we, as we record this on Sunday afternoon.
00:03:28.829 --> 00:03:38.145
By the time the games end today, I think the Dodgers are going to have something like 11 games left, and other teams have as many as 14 games left.
00:03:38.145 --> 00:03:43.120
There's only 14 baseball days left in the season starting Monday morning.
00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:48.925
So some teams are going to be playing virtually every day, some teams are going to have more off days kind of spread out in there.
00:03:48.925 --> 00:03:54.987
But you're really getting into the final stretch here and there's only a couple, there's really only one divisional.
00:03:54.987 --> 00:04:00.230
You know two divisional races left in the American League East, in the American League West.
00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:05.170
Yeah, the NL Central is close, but the Brewers kind of still live by their whole.
00:04:05.191 --> 00:04:08.503
I think they have at least a five or six game lead up this week.
00:04:09.987 --> 00:04:16.005
But the the AL West is still a dogfight because the Rangers, the Astros and the Mariners are virtual tie.
00:04:16.187 --> 00:04:20.704
Well, the Rangers and the Astros and the Mariners are just slipped a little behind a half game back.
00:04:20.783 --> 00:04:34.721
And then in the AL, like we were saying, you know the Orioles, you know, had opened up such a big lead, but the rays, you know, after scuffling a little bit about the around the all star break, have really Kind of come on strong and played good down the stretch here.
00:04:34.882 --> 00:04:37.387
Do you remember how far the Razor ahead at the beginning?
00:04:37.387 --> 00:04:41.927
Soon, we were talking about that team being like one of the great teams of all time, because they started out ridiculous.
00:04:41.935 --> 00:04:44.303
We should have learned our lesson from the Yankees last year.
00:04:44.918 --> 00:04:47.194
Right, right and, and you knew they'd come back.
00:04:47.194 --> 00:04:56.807
But I don't think we would have thought that the Orioles would have been the team to run them down Right and be able to stay in there and John might one of my favorite Oriole pitchers had a good game in his first game.
00:04:56.807 --> 00:05:03.754
Back John means, and how he pitches in the playoffs If he pitches in the playoffs, because you wonder if the guy can pitch much more than five innings.
00:05:04.115 --> 00:05:04.315
He hasn't.
00:05:04.315 --> 00:05:17.017
I just worry that young Orioles team, who a lot of the advanced stats don't favor them that much, runs into a brick wall in the playoffs and bounces out almost a little Unceremoniously.
00:05:17.017 --> 00:05:23.182
I don't think that'll happen because I think they're too good a team, but I worry that it could.
00:05:23.463 --> 00:05:32.608
I like the versatility of the team, particularly on offense, and their bullpen, with Butista, felix Batista being, you know, at the front end of it or the back end, I guess I don't know how you'd say it.
00:05:32.608 --> 00:05:36.507
He, he of the gives them a different dimension.
00:05:36.507 --> 00:05:38.355
T of the UCL problem, right?
00:05:38.355 --> 00:05:48.927
So he's gonna pitch through the UCL and that's really interesting to me, right, because Shohei has a UCL, he's done pitching and he's not gonna pitch again as he packed his bag and went back to Japan.
00:05:48.927 --> 00:05:54.355
Obviously, but they're gonna still try to have this guy pitch to a possible beat instead of having surgery because they have a chance.
00:05:54.995 --> 00:06:03.762
That's wild to me that is what, but granted, he's only throwing one inning as opposed to Shohei being a starter, and they're gonna take longer for his arm to fall off.
00:06:03.762 --> 00:06:09.834
They're gonna try and see if they can get through it, but we don't know that they're actually gonna get so far at to using him in a game.
00:06:09.834 --> 00:06:12.803
They're just trying to see if it's possible right now.
00:06:12.964 --> 00:06:26.220
Yeah, I just, you know, and it's so critical for for all the teams and I saw Kelly troop put out this week the fact her three inning minute on, you know, hey, it's a crapshoot as you get into the, into the tournament, right, there's 12 teams out of 30.
00:06:26.220 --> 00:06:30.800
She mentioned only 50% of the teams make the playoffs and yeah, we, we all know that.
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:36.564
But the, the idea that your bullpen is is such a more important part now at this point.
00:06:36.564 --> 00:06:43.553
The Phillies made it to the World Series last year, we think in part because their bullpen went off the charts and pitched way above their.
00:06:43.553 --> 00:06:46.834
You know their abilities and that's how they were able to get all the way to the World Series.
00:06:46.834 --> 00:06:53.038
The other teams that are the big contenders all have really good bullpens and that's what I think.
00:06:53.038 --> 00:06:58.357
This, this playoff format now really requires a team to go all the way you can get in Right.
00:06:58.357 --> 00:07:02.954
But if you don't have that there, you're not gonna necessarily make it all the way or even that far at all.
00:07:03.216 --> 00:07:05.415
You know, possibly right, I agree with you.
00:07:05.415 --> 00:07:12.274
Yeah, yeah, the teams that have elite bullpens are, but those are the teams that are the elite bullpens are the teams that are also Leading the divisions is kind of go hand-in-hand.
00:07:12.976 --> 00:07:13.137
So.
00:07:13.137 --> 00:07:24.689
So it makes me think why the Padres who aren't in it decided they might have a chance, that they've got hater, they've got a Martinez, they got a bunch of guys in the bullpen that are really good, that pitched well last year, whereas the Mets looked at their bullpen once.
00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:25.514
They didn't have Edwin Diaz.
00:07:25.514 --> 00:07:26.644
They're like, well, there's no way.
00:07:26.644 --> 00:07:29.637
Even if they had Edwin Diaz, I don't know if that bullpen was enough.
00:07:30.119 --> 00:07:31.060
Yeah to compete.
00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:39.091
It would have been hard for them to win a World Series without the starting pitching being Overwhelmingly good and the Yankees kind of had the opposite right this year is they just didn't.
00:07:39.232 --> 00:07:42.060
Besides Garrett Cole, they got nothing consistent from their starters.
00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:44.987
They couldn't get to their bullpen, which is a pretty good bullpen.
00:07:44.987 --> 00:07:47.920
So I think in the playoffs you're gonna see.
00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.026
You know these teams that are kind of hanging on.
00:07:50.026 --> 00:07:50.747
They have the angels.
00:07:50.747 --> 00:07:55.322
They didn't have a bullpen that was gonna get anywhere, so they didn't even bother competing at the trade deadline.
00:07:55.322 --> 00:08:00.329
The Rangers They've got a nice bullpen, but I don't know if they make it in the Mariners.
00:08:00.329 --> 00:08:01.535
That's a good bullpen.
00:08:01.735 --> 00:08:09.742
Yeah and and so I think I think these teams are gonna, you know, kind of make it through and that that the wild cards you know are going to, you know, make some noise.
00:08:09.742 --> 00:08:17.949
But it's gonna be dependent on, on, you know, their relievers to help them get into the World Series if they can yeah, I tend to think that you're generally gonna see.
00:08:18.009 --> 00:08:22.697
That's why the Astros and the Dodgers is because they seem to find a guy every year in that Bullpen.
00:08:22.697 --> 00:08:24.904
That's unbelievably good and having a season.
00:08:24.904 --> 00:08:31.574
The Reyes have kind of shown that and you know, definitely like the Orioles if they can't get an effective Batista back.
00:08:31.574 --> 00:08:35.567
I don't think they have that nearly to the same degree and you brought up.
00:08:35.807 --> 00:08:39.278
You stole my thunder because you talked about the, the Astros and and the Dodgers.
00:08:39.278 --> 00:08:43.986
Both of those teams like there's weird things that when I'm with their starting pitchers Do you think about all the guys that went then.
00:08:43.986 --> 00:08:48.539
Same thing at Tampa, by the way, yeah, and Rasmussen Springer, all gone for the year.
00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.306
The Dodgers, like everybody.
00:08:50.306 --> 00:08:55.062
I mean I think Kershaw is like the only guy that was there and he's not necessarily a six inning pitcher.
00:08:55.062 --> 00:08:58.414
So I and the same thing with the Astros.
00:08:58.414 --> 00:09:03.754
You know they're down to where you know some of their guys aren't pitching anymore, and then Framber Valdez is sort of shaky.
00:09:03.995 --> 00:09:05.804
You know a whole bunch of guys have been shaky.
00:09:05.804 --> 00:09:07.995
So JP France might get a start in the playoffs.
00:09:07.995 --> 00:09:09.822
Yeah, I don't think you would have thought that before this season.
00:09:09.822 --> 00:09:12.139
So you know the bullpen's will help them.
00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:16.668
But in the playoffs, you know, the starters don't necessarily go six, seven innings anyway.
00:09:16.668 --> 00:09:44.561
And one starter who isn't doing that is I think I put out this week, and of course Jason Stark had already written an article about it before I put it out Zach Greenke is one in fifteen the season and he that is one of the worst might be the worst season for a starting pitcher who's gonna be a Hall of Fame player in the history of Major League baseball worst, final season I mean, I guess well my lights, a worse season, I mean just on record.
00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:54.274
And we went and we over, we over evaluate lumbar one, one and fifteen is pretty right, but he's playing for a crappy team, right, right, you know as I'm like gotten like no run support.
00:09:54.274 --> 00:10:01.219
No, he's hasn't pitched as bad you know, and I didn't realize that I guess in his first season he went something like one and eleven Zach.
00:10:01.219 --> 00:10:06.188
Greenke, so he's not wild, so we're assuming he's not gonna pitch anymore after this season.
00:10:06.864 --> 00:10:07.673
I think you said he's done.
00:10:07.956 --> 00:10:10.715
Yeah and so and and we think he's gonna be a Hall of Famer.
00:10:10.715 --> 00:10:16.547
But I was surprised at some of the comments that came back this week and how not everybody agrees with me and us?
00:10:16.648 --> 00:10:17.048
I think no.
00:10:17.048 --> 00:10:31.880
I mean, we heard a lot of really good things and we always love hearing things from people, you know, from the fans and from people talking about it, because I do remember one of the Royals fans saying like if you adjusted Greenke, even if he was receiving like league average run support, he would not be nearly as bad like he's gotten.
00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:40.099
Like I think he's got like under two runs a game or something wild in terms of Run support, so that can definitely lead to a guy having like a one-off bad season.
00:10:40.219 --> 00:10:43.888
But I think that that he was five and 17 in his rookie year.
00:10:43.888 --> 00:10:44.509
That's my mistake.
00:10:44.570 --> 00:10:50.506
Right, but I think that he's still a Hall of Famer and I know some people out there that we saw on Twitter and stuff were saying is he a Hall of Famer?
00:10:50.506 --> 00:10:52.467
But I'm like, is that Greenke isn't a Hall of Famer?
00:10:52.467 --> 00:10:55.724
Are you really telling me there's only three Hall of Fame pictures from this era?
00:10:55.724 --> 00:10:57.288
I agree that's a great point.
00:10:57.640 --> 00:10:58.907
I just don't see it that way.
00:10:58.907 --> 00:11:01.928
And he's 34 strikeouts shy of 3000.
00:11:01.928 --> 00:11:08.966
And I almost could go out and say if you strike out 3000 hitters now you have to do things that say you're not a Hall of.
00:11:08.986 --> 00:11:09.629
Fame picture.
00:11:09.629 --> 00:11:10.652
It's kind of hard.
00:11:10.652 --> 00:11:13.311
You don't strike out 3000 guys by accident.
00:11:13.388 --> 00:11:13.844
Right, right.
00:11:13.844 --> 00:11:19.489
And it's not like Greenke's striking out guys like he's probably not going to get the 3000 strikeouts this year.
00:11:19.580 --> 00:11:22.350
He's not going to necessarily start out 34 guys in the final.
00:11:22.350 --> 00:11:22.780
He's that.
00:11:22.801 --> 00:11:26.230
That's what it would kill you to finish with 2,991.
00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:30.791
I don't think he's going to come back to strike out nine guys next season and then retire.
00:11:30.791 --> 00:11:31.702
This is Zach Greenke.
00:11:31.702 --> 00:11:32.768
You're talking about Might.
00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:35.107
Yeah, that is a very Zach Greenke thing to do.
00:11:35.148 --> 00:11:38.198
By the way, I come back enough to get the number and then just be done with it.
00:11:38.198 --> 00:11:39.345
I think he walks out.
00:11:39.345 --> 00:11:40.504
He gets a 3000 strikeout.
00:11:40.504 --> 00:11:42.684
The ending's not even over, just walks off the field.
00:11:43.341 --> 00:11:56.330
I want to go back to the Angels for a moment because obviously you know, the news came out this week that show he was spotted in an airport in Japan, yeah so, and then all of a sudden, the next day it came out that he was out for the season with an oblique injuries and that's why he wasn't going to play anymore.
00:11:56.330 --> 00:12:00.424
So he's injured, obviously, and you know whether or not.
00:12:00.424 --> 00:12:06.350
And then the strange thing with Rendon, with his, his, oh, yeah, my legs actually broken, he's been broken for a while.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:07.163
They just didn't say it.
00:12:07.163 --> 00:12:13.532
Ok, and that signing for their Angels has got to be one of the all time.
00:12:13.532 --> 00:12:18.032
So and trout saying that obviously I want to maybe be traded.
00:12:18.032 --> 00:12:19.966
If you want to trade me, I'll listen to being trade.
00:12:19.966 --> 00:12:23.174
So Joe Posniewski put out this this week and this is pretty amazing.
00:12:23.174 --> 00:12:31.754
Over the past eight seasons, you could argue that the Angels have had the best player in Major League Baseball every season, that being either trout or Otani.
00:12:32.015 --> 00:12:39.628
Yeah, yes, aaron Judge won the MVP, but let's say that that year Otani because he pitched and all that stuff was was was most viable in that respect.
00:12:39.628 --> 00:12:44.551
Anyway, in all eight of those seasons the Angels had a losing record.
00:12:44.551 --> 00:12:49.650
How can you have the best player in baseball on your team?
00:12:49.650 --> 00:12:55.506
What's a team and have a losing record every season Can I don't even know that's possible to ever happen.
00:12:55.527 --> 00:13:01.772
You know, in baseball before Well, generally no, because the best players are usually on the best teams.
00:13:01.772 --> 00:13:08.852
It's unusual for really good players to be on a crappy team, but the Angels have basically not run that they've.
00:13:08.852 --> 00:13:19.645
They've tied up their money in the other guys and none of the other guys they've brought in at any point whether it's to bat around a Tony and trout or to pitch around a Tony and trout have given them anything.
00:13:20.302 --> 00:13:21.480
And I think he's mentioned the pitching right.
00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:28.519
So, besides Ohtani as a pitcher, okay, can you name one angels pitcher over the past eight years and say, well, yeah, that guy was a really good pitcher?
00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:30.859
I think it's, and you can't say Jared Weaver, because that was before that.
00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:32.303
Right, no, there's no guy that you could.
00:13:32.303 --> 00:13:35.706
There's probably a guy that has had a good season for them.
00:13:35.706 --> 00:13:45.267
What would be the kind of thing where you don't remember that and you didn't really know about it, and so I think that does not having any kind of consistent pitching either in the rotation or the bullpen.
00:13:45.267 --> 00:13:50.884
And then you you top that off with guys getting hurt all the time, having virtually no lineup protection.
00:13:50.884 --> 00:13:58.913
That yeah sure, both of those guys are remarkable, but you can't carry a team to wins by yourself, even as good as they are.
00:13:59.160 --> 00:14:07.320
Clearly it's not the case and it tells me that because I have trouble naming angel pitchers that that maybe pitching was part of the problem.
00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:14.321
Even they tried to bring in Cinder guard and he was already kind of toast when he got there, so that that wasn't like bringing in a big name picture when.
00:14:14.321 --> 00:14:19.404
Where have they gone and brought somebody in saying, oh, these guys are serious, they're bringing in a picture right now, they just are not doing it.
00:14:19.404 --> 00:14:29.643
So I just hope for angel fans sake that already Marino, that if they're going to tear it down now, if they let those guys go, well, it's not an if Otani is gone.
00:14:29.682 --> 00:14:31.248
That much is obvious at this point.
00:14:31.568 --> 00:14:36.532
Right, I'd say that the chances of Otani being an angel next year are less than 5%.
00:14:36.841 --> 00:14:37.946
And it's not going to happen.
00:14:37.946 --> 00:14:38.142
He's.
00:14:38.142 --> 00:14:39.399
There is no way he's going to be an angel.
00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:41.105
You're saying 0% chance.
00:14:41.607 --> 00:14:43.866
Wow, and trout, I don't know.
00:14:43.866 --> 00:14:47.018
I mean, does he want to be part of a rebuild, and but who's going to trade for him?
00:14:47.078 --> 00:14:48.913
So somebody will trade for trout.
00:14:48.913 --> 00:14:52.001
Yeah yeah, he's too good a player not to so.
00:14:52.686 --> 00:14:55.039
I wanted to talk about Cole Regans.
00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:57.889
Did you did you see the video this week and I know you should put this up?
00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:16.649
So Cole Regans picture was pitching against four Kansas city came over in the Chapman deal and he's he's pitching Pitching against the blue jays and he catches his spike in the first one on the mountain and falls down and the ball goes flying to the backstop Right he Rick Yankees like two pitches in a row three in a row.
00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.950
Then the next pitch he loses the ball and it goes flying out and so they scored the tying and the winning run.
00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:30.147
And then the next pitch he gets a spike caught again on the third time and it goes wild and they lose the game and I think they think the go ahead went.
00:15:30.147 --> 00:15:36.182
I wasn't over in that it wasn't a walk off situation, but that was the strangest three batter sequence that.
00:15:36.241 --> 00:15:37.144
I've ever seen.
00:15:37.306 --> 00:15:40.427
Yeah, three pitch sequence, you're right, three pitch sequence that I have ever seen.
00:15:40.427 --> 00:15:44.010
So, yeah, go back if you can and check out Cole Regans and see what it did.
00:15:44.010 --> 00:15:45.182
And I think I posted on the going.
00:15:45.182 --> 00:15:47.490
What is somebody kidding me here?
00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:48.041
Did this?
00:15:48.041 --> 00:15:49.587
This didn't really happen, did it?
00:15:49.587 --> 00:15:50.484
Well, it obviously did.
00:15:51.062 --> 00:15:53.581
So, yeah, that was and then yeah, and then we had a.
00:15:53.581 --> 00:15:58.782
Matt Waldron get the first knuckleball win since 2018 with Boston.
00:15:58.782 --> 00:16:01.846
Stephen Wright, nice to have a knuckleballer in the league again.
00:16:01.846 --> 00:16:04.648
It's always fun when there's at least one of them floating around.
00:16:04.648 --> 00:16:05.671
You know, literally.
00:16:05.671 --> 00:16:06.061
Yeah, I think.
00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:11.905
Mickey Janis was the, for the Orioles was in the league like three or four years ago was the last knuckle better so this would be he wasn't getting any wins.
00:16:11.905 --> 00:16:16.245
That would, that would and this would make the 33rd knuckleballer in the major leagues in the history of major league.
00:16:16.245 --> 00:16:17.666
Very exclusive club Right.
00:16:17.666 --> 00:16:23.105
We did an episode on knuckleballers and I was stunned at the time that we're only 32 and now there are 33.
00:16:23.105 --> 00:16:26.610
How about the players who had really good weeks this week?
00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:28.544
Um, you know, uh.
00:16:28.985 --> 00:16:33.450
I think the most interesting thing is that you know you have some guys on bad teams that had great weeks.
00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:40.889
Bobby Whit Jr is still kind of showing that he is going to be a superstar level player for Kansas city going forward.
00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:50.265
You just have to hope that he's not in a Mike trout, shohei Otani situation where the Royals are unable to kind of feel the team around him to take advantage of how good he is.
00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:52.908
And Luis Arias had another good week.
00:16:52.908 --> 00:16:54.667
That's not a bad team per se.
00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:57.625
I know there's, they're hanging around there 77 and 72.
00:16:57.625 --> 00:17:00.662
They're in that third wildcard spot, I think they're.
00:17:00.662 --> 00:17:07.096
They're certainly the type of team that that that has a shot going down and I think both them and the twins would say that was a good trade for them.
00:17:07.155 --> 00:17:07.839
I was going to ask you that.
00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.769
So Pablo Lopez also on the list for having a terrific week?
00:17:10.769 --> 00:17:14.150
Uh and and so who won that trade?
00:17:14.150 --> 00:17:19.119
And you're saying it's a, both teams want it's a, it's a win win for a change.
00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:20.425
It's a win, win for a change.
00:17:20.425 --> 00:17:33.967
Then they Marlin's got a guy that's, you know, a integral part of their lineup and the twins got a really good picture, and I think for both teams it made sense, because Arias is the type of guy that you know.
00:17:33.967 --> 00:17:53.828
You need a team that's kind of having a special season in some respects, like the Marlins, to really take advantage of, and having another big, strong pitcher in there for Minnesota is kind of why they've been able to just sort of stay afloat in that central where, despite the lousy season that Correa is, if he would have had a you know a season that they expected, I think they would have been way ahead and put that division away.
00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:59.065
And then you have a guy like trade Turner who just turned it on after he got that standing ovation.
00:17:59.065 --> 00:18:02.558
It was like a light clicked on for him and he suddenly remembered how to play baseball.
00:18:02.578 --> 00:18:05.388
Yeah, his B war for the season is up now to 3.7.
00:18:05.388 --> 00:18:09.090
So he'll maybe he'll end around four, which will be a down year for trade Turner.
00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:09.421
It'll.
00:18:09.421 --> 00:18:17.058
Just when you look at his year and I think this is something to look at, because we were looking at you know, how did Kyle Lewis win the rookie of the year in 2020?
00:18:17.058 --> 00:18:19.186
That's like, well, it was a 60 game sample.
00:18:19.186 --> 00:18:26.042
And so if you look at trade Turner and you isolate the beginning of his year, oh my God, he was just God awful, he was terrible.
00:18:26.042 --> 00:18:36.268
But then when you you add in the full context of his season, it's just a slight downturn, but all of our perceptions of trade Turner's this year as if he's been truly horrid.
00:18:36.268 --> 00:18:38.046
I think that can happen with teams.
00:18:38.046 --> 00:18:51.546
Sometimes, too, you had a team like the rays come roaring out to this unbelievable start, Best record of all time Well, but then they have a little bit of a struggle, but because they started off that way, you very much get the mindset that that's what they are for that season.
00:18:51.846 --> 00:18:52.348
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:52.348 --> 00:18:55.146
And another guy who I think you know as med fans.
00:18:55.146 --> 00:19:02.021
We're big Lindor fans and we think he's underrated, which is hard for a guy getting paid as much as he does to be underrated.
00:19:02.021 --> 00:19:11.983
But you know, really good defensive player having a great defensive season, really good hitter this guy is having one of the all time great seasons at shortstop and it's going under the radar.
00:19:11.983 --> 00:19:12.826
Is Corey Seeger?
00:19:12.826 --> 00:19:14.846
Right, corey Seeger has been unbelievable.
00:19:14.846 --> 00:19:19.325
I mean, I mean the numbers that this guy is putting up in the season he's having is not to be believed.
00:19:19.325 --> 00:19:19.907
And he's done it.
00:19:19.907 --> 00:19:25.624
He got hurt for a little bit of time, which hurts his sort of MVP standing a little bit.
00:19:25.683 --> 00:19:29.819
You know not, I guess Joe Hayes going to win it anyway, but Joe Hayes was always going to win this year's MVP, right, right.
00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:36.019
But, seeger, you know that when they gave him all that money to come from the Dodgers over there, he's showing that he was clearly worth that.
00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:41.146
I mean, and that team is hanging around a large part because he is, you know, a guy you can't get out when you need to.
00:19:41.146 --> 00:19:48.875
Royce Lewis is having with the three grand slams in four grand slams in nine games.
00:19:48.895 --> 00:19:49.718
Yeah, another one.
00:19:49.858 --> 00:19:50.863
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's.
00:19:50.863 --> 00:19:53.756
That's hasn't happened in ever.
00:19:53.756 --> 00:19:54.519
I don't even know.
00:19:54.740 --> 00:20:00.618
I had an unbelievable streak of grand slams, but grand slams are as much a thing of circumstances as anything else.
00:20:00.618 --> 00:20:04.579
It's really hard to be a guy that's good at hitting them, because you have to get up with the bases loaded.
00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:05.773
You have no control over that.
00:20:05.977 --> 00:20:06.259
But it helped.
00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:13.335
It helped the twins certainly, you know, maintain their lead and sort of have them sort of comfortably you know when they're already comfortably.
00:20:13.335 --> 00:20:15.787
Yeah, well, because the Guardians are so inept.
00:20:15.787 --> 00:20:18.199
So inept.
00:20:18.199 --> 00:20:25.156
I don't understand how that team went into the season thinking, yeah, we couldn't hit last year, we won't change anything and maybe we'll just hit more.
00:20:25.538 --> 00:20:25.700
Oh yeah.
00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:28.753
Well, we'll clearly get the same year out of Andres Jimenez again.
00:20:29.055 --> 00:20:30.099
Well, yeah, right, that hurt them.
00:20:30.099 --> 00:20:33.460
And then they traded one of their better hitters for Noah Cindergarten.
00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.756
And then they cut Cindergarten as bizarre.
00:20:35.756 --> 00:20:39.319
Right, I mean they must have really not like Ahmed Rosario to do that to the guy.
00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:41.945
I mean well, I don't know what he did, Playing great for the Dodgers.
00:20:41.945 --> 00:20:45.680
So, and Matt Olson, I guess we've got to give a shout out to the brave.
00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:50.026
You've set the brave single season record for home runs, right when they're breaking Andrew Jones.
00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:53.075
And I don't think I really would have thought that Andrew Jones had the all-time record.
00:20:53.075 --> 00:20:54.880
I would feel something like Eddie Matthews I would have, I would have, I would have.
00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:56.359
I knew Jones never hit 50.
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:57.987
I knew Jones hit 51.
00:20:57.987 --> 00:21:02.888
And I think Aaron never did Right, so that's kind of how I knew he had to be up there Right.
00:21:02.909 --> 00:21:03.089
Right.
00:21:03.089 --> 00:21:12.106
So you know, Matt Olson, I guess making Braves fans forget about Freddie Freeman, I don't know Freddie Freeman's having a ridiculous Freddie.
00:21:12.126 --> 00:21:17.067
Freeman like season, though If you're a brave fan, yeah, freddie is great, but you have Matt Olson, so you don't care.
00:21:17.300 --> 00:21:19.193
And so you can really tell yourself you're a brave fan.
00:21:19.193 --> 00:21:28.051
Going well, we didn't spend as much on Matt Olson as we would have spent in Freddie Freeman, so we were able to sign Michael Harris and potential Cy Young winner and Spencer Strauss.
00:21:28.051 --> 00:21:28.613
Yeah, I'll be.
00:21:28.859 --> 00:21:31.048
I don't think it's the Cy Young this year.
00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:32.204
Yeah, let's talk about that.
00:21:32.204 --> 00:21:39.432
You were pretty clear on that when I asked you and I when I told you that he's got 200 and more than 250 strikeouts and like 180 odd innings.
00:21:39.432 --> 00:21:42.368
That's pretty ridiculous for a starting pitcher.
00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:48.373
He's also got like a four, almost a four something ERA, yeah, and it's just it's hard for me to have a guy like.
00:21:48.373 --> 00:21:48.634
It's not.
00:21:48.634 --> 00:21:52.931
It's not the pitcher that strikes out the most guys that wins the Cy Young.
00:21:53.864 --> 00:21:57.450
No, it doesn't, Because Dwight Gooden would have won more than the one that he did Exactly.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:09.210
And so I think there are other guys in the NL that have had better seasons that will get it, whether that's Justin Steele, I think Zach Gallen heard his chances by having a stinker against the Mets the other night.
00:22:09.210 --> 00:22:16.570
I think Kodai Senga will not win the Cy Young, but he'll finish in the voting for both rookie of the year and Cy Young.
00:22:16.570 --> 00:22:18.000
What about Blake Snell?
00:22:18.444 --> 00:22:19.700
I think Blake Snell could win the Cy Young.
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:24.180
I think he's probably the guy who's going to get it and and you know the Cub fans love this Justin Steele.
00:22:24.541 --> 00:22:33.137
Justin Steele has an unbelievable like final two starts to the season and like really powers the Cubs into getting a wild card spot or the division somehow.
00:22:33.137 --> 00:22:36.176
Right, right, right, then I think it's either if it gets Blake Snell.
00:22:36.499 --> 00:22:38.818
Yeah, and that's you know you can do that these days.
00:22:38.818 --> 00:22:43.559
Right, you didn't used to be able to win a Cy Young for a team that actually isn't in the playoff race.
00:22:43.861 --> 00:22:51.720
Well, I think, because Felix Hernandez sort of got his career Cy Young that one year where they're like, ok, he kind of has to get one at some point because he deserves it.
00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:57.859
So he just they just gave it to him in one season where, like he didn't have that, he had like 12 or 14 wins that year.
00:22:57.859 --> 00:22:59.546
It's like the lowest number of wins ever.
00:22:59.586 --> 00:23:00.347
Right A Cy Young win.
00:23:00.347 --> 00:23:00.930
Yeah, right Right.
00:23:01.762 --> 00:23:08.446
And I think ever since then they're a lot more OK with giving it to a guy that's on a knock, the Grom would be a guy who the same thing.
00:23:08.487 --> 00:23:17.567
It wasn't about wins and losses, and I think we know that let's let's wrap it up now and talk a little bit about the year that baseball has had, just because the stats came out.
00:23:17.567 --> 00:23:24.303
We know we'll summarize the season, but from a standpoint of people going out to the ballpark to watch games, TV is up.
00:23:24.544 --> 00:23:25.448
attendance is up.
00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:34.413
It's a great thing, it's it's really impressive that the the average MLB attendance, by the way, in an early August was 38,000 fans a game.
00:23:34.413 --> 00:23:36.643
I didn't realize the average.
00:23:36.643 --> 00:23:39.049
Obviously there are teams with more than that and teams with less.
00:23:39.049 --> 00:23:40.948
And you got to carry the A's and all that.
00:23:40.948 --> 00:23:46.131
So all 15 games that day, on Saturday, august 5th, through 30,000 people or more.
00:23:46.131 --> 00:23:47.343
So you hear people's out.
00:23:47.343 --> 00:23:49.730
Baseball is, you know, going down the tubes.
00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:57.211
And I think that was that was the narrative up until this year, but I think the pace of play changes have really helped bring people back to the game.
00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:00.125
Boy that seems to me to be.
00:24:00.125 --> 00:24:02.922
I just can't believe it would happen that quickly that everybody.
00:24:02.922 --> 00:24:05.970
Hey, marge, you know the games are a lot faster now.
00:24:05.970 --> 00:24:08.647
Let's go to the game, let's get in the car and we can be back in two and a half hours.
00:24:08.647 --> 00:24:10.246
I don't see that happening?
00:24:10.339 --> 00:24:12.347
I think what it is is people are more engaged again.
00:24:12.347 --> 00:24:21.428
More people are watching more games on television, so there are more fans and more people are following than they have in previous seasons, and that's going to get people out to the games.
00:24:21.488 --> 00:24:31.309
More People are going to the ballpark, though in numbers, and we know how expensive it is to go to a major league game, and I don't know if it's an economic harbinger or anything like that.
00:24:31.309 --> 00:24:40.227
But to think that you know when people are saying the game has lost something, that people are willing to pony up and go, and I mean you drop a good or major league game, you drop a lot of money, that's a lot, not just on the tickets, by the way.
00:24:40.259 --> 00:24:45.769
But now I think the fact that it's not something that isn't that it is a laborious affair, which it could be.
00:24:45.769 --> 00:24:54.250
I remember going to games and you would just get into those late endings where you start getting all the pitching changes Right and the game just drags out and becomes unfun at a certain point.
00:24:54.250 --> 00:25:05.093
I think it isn't as much that way, and so it just feels like a more enjoyable experience for your dollar and the pitch lock I think we might have mentioned or not will be in effect for the entire playoff.
00:25:05.113 --> 00:25:06.101
We talked about that so.
00:25:06.141 --> 00:25:11.994
I think that you know that's basically nodding to the fact that this is working and, for the point you make out, maybe it's keeping people more engaged.
00:25:11.994 --> 00:25:15.482
They don't want people to turn off in the playoff game because they want, don't want, to watch.
00:25:15.482 --> 00:25:19.588
You know the pitchers stand out there and you know, you know, look like they don't know what's going on.
00:25:19.588 --> 00:25:21.121
Oh yeah, exactly so.
00:25:21.121 --> 00:25:25.131
So we got, you know, two division winners sort of set aside.
00:25:25.131 --> 00:25:28.228
We've the next one have seven more games are going to be down to the last seven games.
00:25:28.228 --> 00:25:32.955
Do you think we'll have any more clinching between now and when we record next Sunday?
00:25:32.955 --> 00:25:34.319
For sure you think one or the other.
00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:35.104
So you think that.
00:25:35.104 --> 00:25:36.171
Who do you think it's going to be?
00:25:36.171 --> 00:25:36.994
Twins will clinch?
00:25:36.994 --> 00:25:37.819
You think the twins will clinch?
00:25:37.940 --> 00:25:39.266
Twins will clinch their division.
00:25:39.266 --> 00:25:42.609
I think the Brewers could end up clinching their division.
00:25:42.609 --> 00:25:47.724
Okay, and then you only have the AL East and West remaining going in, and then the wildcard races.
00:25:47.724 --> 00:25:57.592
And then, the last week of the season, it'll be all those playoff teams slotting their pitchers to line them up to pitch in the playoffs, especially in the NL, with that final wildcard spot, it's going to be a dog fight to the end.
00:25:57.821 --> 00:25:58.167
No doubt.
