Toby bell Ringer, Welcome to bat Flip and Nerds. Hello and welcome to
Backflips and Steve Facebook podcast with the British Twist. I am your lead jack
off this evening, Russell Easum, and I'm delighted to be joined by one
of my other co jack offs, Darius Austin. How are you doing today?
I'm doing very well. I'm glad you decided to take up the mantle
as lead jack off, the role you were born to play. To be
fair, I do believe lead to jack off of the Backflipt the Nerds is
Tom Pringle. I don't think anybody could take take that arguments from John certainly.
Obviously we are here to talk about Mincegate and nothing else. I think
we've made ourselves kind of like pretty good from what we tweet. Obviously,
Jake and Jordan have been both wonderful individuals to us, and I think we're
a wonderful part of Twitter. What everything has gone on in the last two
days has been kind of ridiculous and then completely nearly kind of thrown over the
board last night with what Alana Rizza said, She's apologize. Jake's taken that
apology and said please don't now abuse her based off the back of it.
So it's kind of all set. But it was definitely a an amusing moment
that kind of made baseball seem a little bit more like NBA and NFL for
a bit. I think this is something that we don't have in baseball too
much, a little bit of high drama when things are going on. We
don't have these moments between players as much in baseball, do you? Was
there a need, like, not only was the need for this, but
like, is this kind of come out the fact that because like this was
Atlanta versus Philly, Like, I feel like if this just wasn't any other
like rivalry with different fan bases, like even if like that comment had been
reported, it never would have been blown up the way it did. Yeah,
I guess we should clarify if anybody has for somehow, for some reason
like just not consumed any baseball media outside of maybe I don't know, going
on a highlights package for the last few days, we should clarify that.
Jake the podcast one half of Sis for This Family Barbecue, reported that Orlando
RCA, after Bryce Upper got thrown out on that incredible play to end the
second game of the ends was sort of marching around the clubhouse shouting at a
boy Harper apparently, which is, you know, quite strange, but all
the reporters are in there. He didn't seem to care. Jake reported it,
and then everybody got very mad at Jake thought reporting it, and so
that's that's the backstory here. But yeah, I I feel like it has
like I sort of have been reading these comments from fans complaining saying, you
know, reporters should be allowed in the clubhouse and they should just talk to
players and players want to and all this, and I'm thinking, like people
love the like if reporters didn't do their job properly in the NBA, it
would be so dull because there's like so much drama, and I feel like
there is. I'm the current here of like, oh, it's just reporter's
jobs to be nice to the players and printing whatever the players want and that's
it. And it's like, have you ever met a journalist, you know
what journalists do? Like, obviously there are people out there who think that's
their role. I'm just going to pal up with the players. Maybe I
get a better quote out of them every now and again, because I'm friendly
with them, but I'm not I'm not going to push the envelope here.
I'm not going to try and do serious reporting. I'm just going to do
whatever they want and I hope that that gets me some access that maybe somebody
else doesn't get. But they're not interested in breaking stories. I mean,
when you think about the Brandon Talburn incident, for example, when he was
shouting about I'm so effing glad we got sooner in the clubhouse, nobody was
like, tell off, step up, step out stein. I mean,
I'm sure there were some Twitter jokers who were complaining about it, but for
the most part, everybody's like, well steph, this is great reporting.
You know, thanks for brinis to our attention. Guy got fired, you
know, that was good work. Everything was and now it's like the most
innocuous. It's not even like he was saying anything particularly offensive, and this
is it. This is it like to me that I think we've had it
in a few discussions that we've had in a few of our check groups or
whatever. But to me, it's like this is sport down to a t.
Like when I play sport at a local level, Like if somebody kind
of like messes up or whatever that we don't like or whatever will kind of
like, well, we'll probably say something about it. Don't know if that
person hears it or not, but if that person does or whatever, or
if somebody says something about me and I mess up when I play against that
team next time, I'm going to use that like I'm not a professional sports
to or whatever. But it very much just seems to like that's the way
sports works. Someone messes up, people take the piss out of them that
I thought Harper would have been using that mistake as fuel anyway. And I
don't think this actually like makes it made it any difference, Like, oh
yeah, we can say Harper then hit two home runs like the next game
that was happened, Like one of them was a meatball down the middle that
should have been punished no matter when it was in this season, but it
just managed to perfically escalate on top of that. But we'll leave that where
it is. Let's talk about the baseball. Let's talk about what happened in
that that Brave series. I think the thing that surprised me most in that
series is how bad the back of the Atlanta lineup was. But I thought
the big thing about Atlanta this year was, yes, obviously you've got a
Cunya who's amazing at the top, but they kind of have a one to
nine that was hitting above like league average, and that back of that lineup
did absolutely nothing. Then for this in the postseason, Acunia struggled. Hey,
it's four games, like he was, he was as good at getting
base hits as we were at predicting postseason victories. So well that was not
very good. Yes, we were one and seven and he was two to
fourteen, So yeah, we're as good as Ronald Acunia Junior are predicting as
he is playing baseball from this very short kind of like window of looking into
it. Take that what you will, but yeah, did that did that
shock you as much? Darius? Yeah? I mean, obviously, this
is arguably the greatest regular season offensive all the time. You know, that's
not hyperbole if you go by the adjusted stats that twenty twenty three Braves have
got a pretty decent claim to that. And yeah, the depth was insane.
And then you look at who had a series and it was Austin Riley.
That was that was kind of it, really like Travisteino did, Okay,
but he didn't play that much. And I know it's a tiny sample,
but this this lineup is so good you just would not say, look
at them and think one of these guys is going to have a good series.
And this is this is just baseball. You know, it's four games
and anything can happen. Robert or a great piece of Bett perspectives talking about
how Philly actually attacked Atlanta with fast balls. You know, they've identified they
were pretty weak against high heat, especially up and away, and they just
went after them again and again and again and it really paid off. You
know, they had a good game plan. They were fired up offensively.
You know, Castianus and Turner and Harper were like forces. I just love
Brett playoff Bryce. It's fantastic to watch the guy. The guy was built
for this moment. And yeah that once they got back to Philly, I
just I felt like, you know, even though it was one one,
I'm like, the Philly are gonna win this because the fans are insane,
the team has hyped and it just felt like, yeah, they were,
they were all over them. You know, they seem to have a Strider's
number eiven. They were. They were just waiting for the slider it seemed
like, and then trying to catch up to the fast ball if they could.
And yeah, I think that the game planning was really really well done
by the Philadelphia Phillies. And it's second straight year that they've got the advantage
of Atlanta the one time that it mad. Yeah, and I think,
well, I'll talk specifically about Game four now, but we can kind of
go back into some of the other games if you want to talk about like
specific things that happening then. But to me, it is either goes to
Bob Thomson or it goes to like the front office who decided this, but
them going to the key men in like the sixth and the seventh from the
ballpen perspective, like that showed to me, like how much baseball has changed,
like years, Like there's no way that like those guys would have been
coming out for the sixth and the seventh in inc maybe even like five years
ago, like but they knew that, Like this is actually like the key
moment, like to get these outs now and then you you'll think about it
like if you actually do it, well, you don't see the top of
that lineup again, Like you get through the kind of like these moments,
and so yeah, you end up with like Strom coming in at the end,
do you'd be like, did you think he was gonna be the one
that was gonna like close out the win for for for the Phillies. No,
I didn't, but he came out and like and did his job.
But they kind of really lined this up game this game. Well, whereas
I feel on the flip side Atlanta, like the pinching, I just don't
care, Like if you yeah, like Dana for Harris is like okay,
yeah, Donna was on a little bit. It was actually hit well in
a little bit during the tournament, But like, if you're actually believing that
enough that has happened there is going to make a difference. I don't mind
like some of the pinch running stuff, But then if it do you do
you think that Varn Grisham is a better hitter than Nicky Lopez? I don't
like. I mean, and he's also he's just not had these moments Like
I felt bad for the guy. It's like being sent up to bat in
like the most important moment of their season basically, and it's like, well,
what opportunity if you give him like that? He hasn't been in these
situations this year. Yeah, and it's always hard to quantify like how big
a difference that makes. But you know, Nicky Lopez has experience. He
has played a lot more in the majors than Vaughan Grissom has. And the
Atlanta you know said to vaugh Grismer the season, we don't trust you.
Basically we're going to go with us here, all yeah, and then it's
like, oh now, now we're going to send you up in this like
incredibly game moment. Yeah, And for me, just I just don't agree
with starting Plart, Like I don't think they were in a position where they
needed to improve defensively, they needed to score runs, So I'd be having
one of Rosario or Dono is that as the designated hitter and playing Gozuna in
the outfit, Like I just like it, like it baffles, Like I
guess there's some kind of like matchup dynamics kind of going on here, some
lefties and righties to kind of push it into like some perspective. But yeah,
and then if you don't hit, you don't win. Like well We'll
say this quite a few times like that, Like we can talk about all
the Strider choke again giving up three runs, like he was an out away
from a quality start, Like it was not the implosion that it was last
year. From the other kind of like starting pitching once again, It's like,
it's not like massive implosions. Yes, I think obviously the one game
they did get like obliterated, but like in your other regards, like these
are close games that could have gone like either way, and so you're sat
there being like, yeah, you can't. You need to score runs to
win baseball games, and remarkably, Philly did a good job at stopping Atlanta
doing that. Yeah, I suppose one thing with like the sort of pinching
pinch running is that Atlanta clearly had the best regularly is in the lineup,
but they didn't change it, Like it was one of the most consistent lineups
all year. Rob Thompson didn't get put in these situations very much where he
had to go, oh, you know, what do I need to do
here? Do I need to pinch here? Or like this didn't happen to
Atlanta. You know, they were blowing people out, they scored any six
runs a game like this just wasn't the situation that he had to be in
because their lineup was so good, And yeah, I wonder, like,
you know, on sort of on the face of it, if you're in
the series and you're you're getting ahead, then fine, But in the way
the games ended up playing out, it actually ended up being I think games
that he probably was not used to managing in that way very much. Yeah,
I think Sticker didn't have basically have. But yeah, I think I
think what positives do we think we take from this Philadelphia team going into the
match with the Dinadbacks, And what are your concerns going into kind of that
series after we've seen for a couple of days, or is there really any
concerns? I think you still remain concerned about some of the control in this
bullpen. You know, Craig King was going to give people for a heart
attack sometimes. Jeff Hoffman kind of you know that that game too, which
Philly probably should have won as well, and given how good Wheeler looks for
most of it, you know, he kind of coughed that one up as
well. And yeah, there are control issues in the ballpen. You know,
it's a lot better than it has been in recent years. They can
strike anybody out, They want to, but you could you could see it
meltdown happening. I think the other thing is defensively, they can be questionable.
You know, Bryce is making a great go of it at first base
for somebody who's never played first base, but it is questionable sometimes, and
that's kind of the only way. They cannot play Schwarber in the outfield.
So if they do end up playing Schwarmer in the outfield, then they've got
a problem there instead. So you know that that was like maybe a bit
of a worry. But with Wheeler with Nola, you know, that's that's
a one two that can arrival anybody, and you you know, if those
guys win their games, then you're going to win the series. So I
think they're looking pretty formidable playoff. Nick castianis turned up the last couple of
games, which is a big boon for the Philly lineup because he's had some
rough stretches this season. And yeah, when you look at Harper and Turner
and real Muto and just the depth they've got here, I think it's very
promising for Philly really, and the atmosphere as well. I just think it
must be so difficult to play in Philadelphia it's really wild. It's been fun
to see the last couple of years how loud it gets there. So,
yeah, you know, Diamondbacks. I believe the Phillies commit the Diamondbacks for
sure, and then it's yeah, can they knock off one of the al
teams in the World Series? But yeah, I think so far they've played
a pretty much perfect postseason, so I wouldn't bet against them. Yeah,
it's a really interesting one because I've not looked too much at like the batting
lineup or like the batting order for like this Phillies team, But obviously I
looked towards the end of the season they did switch to having like bum and
stop being like four and five and having like Real Muto and Casiana like behind
them, because yeah's not been hitting as well. Like do you feel do
you think we might see that change coming into the next season, I mean,
next next series or do you think they'll probably stick with it and just
be like, hey, you know what, this is what we've kind of
gone into this postseason thinking is the best way it was playing out. Berman
Stott did not have great series, and even Schwaba didn't like these things they've
they've they've beaten up, the beating up the braves here and one, four
and five from the hitting lineup have had pretty poor go at it. Yeah,
I mean I feel like it's a very vibes team, you know,
and Thompson did go is Schwab the leadoff basically or season. I think there
was a certainly over the second half he was just locked into that leadoff spot.
So yeah, I don't know whether one series is going to make him
change his mind about that, but I think yeah, it's yeah, it's
a real vibe team and at the moment they're just all they're all hyped.
You know. I don't rate Alec Bom particularly highly as a hitter, I
have to say, but all of these guys, you know, capable on
their days, Harper Turner, you know, they can all turn a game.
And I feel like, you know, once you've got past those guys,
it's, yeah, Brad Marshall, that a good year. But it
is I think, you know, you know what the top of the lineup
isually look like and whatever order. Yeah, so that takes us onto the
team that they will face, and the Arizona Diamondbacks in who won relatively simply
like an a fairly kind of like shocking endeavor. Like the bats that me
and Ben talked and Robert talked about of being like they're going to be good
for the Dodgers come into this postseason. None of them appeared in but they
say it's only three games. But the pitching, starting pitching was also bad
for LA. That's something that we thought was going to happen. So I
think Magic Johnson put it best too, is one of the Dodgers co owners.
It's like, we're all disappointed that our Dodgers didn't hit or pitch.
Well, that's the reason why we lost the series to the Diamondbacks, which
is like, yeah, like there's nothing, there's no individual thing to point
out here. Yeah, you can say Kershaw got blown up. Yeah,
you can say that lanceln got absolutely Mollard in one inning. But you can't
pin the blame on anybody because it was just a collective failure. Is that
is that harsh to say to the Diamondbacks that they did like the Dinmonbacks actually
did very well. Yeah, I mean they played well. I mean some
weird, weird defeats. I mean you know that the four homers in one
inning and then no offense the rest of the game basically is pretty strange.
I saw people complaining, you know that Lynn didn't get taken out, but
I think after like you'd given up a couple of homes. But I think
it was at like thirty five pitches and it's like there's nobody on base,
so like they don't have anybody. There's not like massive depth here. So
what they do if they take Lad's lit out. You know, if a
guy gives up for solo homers in an inning, you kind of just have
to live with it. I think that early in the game. So,
yeah, all credit to the Diamondbacks. You know they played well, they
hit well, but yeah, you know the Dodgers just didn't hit at all.
And you say, yeah, gosh, or the first game was gone.
I think after the first inning more or less. But that game even,
you know, the last night, the last game of four to two,
you know, the Dodgers, you would expect the Dodgers to score more
than four runs in a game, being the Dodgers, you know, that's
not an insurmountable offense. And you know, Brandon Fart has not been great
this season. You know, he's had his ups and downs. That's a
game you would expect them to win, and they just didn't. They just
didn't hit you know, nothing, nothing from Betts, pretty much nothing from
Freeman, and you know, these are the guys who've carried them all year,
and that's that's what happens in three games. Sometimes. I don't know
that there's like a massive takeaway from this other than that, Yeah, the
Dodgers have once again run into the inexorable facts of the postseason, which is
that anybody can beat anybody in over a five game series. And you know,
Oakland beat Atlanta in a serious this season Like that kind of tells you
everything really doesn't so that it is what it is. So don't think it
helps Dodgers fans a great deal. I'm going to be interested to see what
this Dodgers team looks like next year with Kershel. You know, this might
be it. He obviously wasn't healthy. You know, there's a lot on
that rotation that is uncertain. I think some of the rookies you know,
did their best this year, but there's not a lot of established talent anymore.
So it'll be very interesting to see how Friedman goes about this offseas now
and whether they do try and get you know, I don't know how they're
going to do it, but you want that Nola Wheeler start to your rotation
in the playoffs and they don't have that right now. That's not Clayton Kershel's
fault that he's injured, but I think it would if he'd come out and
had a gem in Game one, that would have put a different complexion of
the series. Yeah, it's an interesting one to think about, at least
future because obviously the talk for the whole entire last twenty four months has been
show yo tourney will be a Dodger. They show you tiny com pitch next
year. That doesn't really solve a lot of the Dodgers problems. Do they
eat obviously the thirty or forty million for that year knowing that actually they've got
to solve that other problem in a completely different way. But that is a
future discussion about the Dodgers. What we did see was a lot of power
from the Diamondbacks. It was. It was home run City. It was
I was luckily enough to need to wake up and go to the toilet in
the middle of the night and I literally just looked at my phone and saw
that just like, oh, like, oh, this game's going on,
like I'm just gonna quickly look at it, like I'll quickly look at the
school watch in it. And I saw the second, third, and fourth
home runs. Well I saw the fourth one twice because Marino hit one in
a foul, trotted around the whole entire way, then got told to go
back up, and then spank the next one over the defense as well,
which is like if you I don't know like how that feels for like a
professional player, but that it's just got to be such an amazing moment to
be like thinking that you had it, had it taken away and then getting
it back. Like they looked phenomenal. They looked like the Diamondbacks at the
start of the season, not the Diamondbacks of like towards the end of the
season. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, yeah, they're tied with the
Phillies for most home runs so far this postseason with thirteen. The Dodgers hit
one, by the way, And yeah, they do have guys up and
down this lineup with power. You know, it's they've got some questionable that's
towards the bottom, I think, But you know, Tommy fam has been
good since he went over and yeah, Marte has been great all season.
Moreno's really coming into his own. We don't need to tell anybody about Corbyn
Carroll, I don't think. But yeah, it's, you know, not
a team of megastars, but there is offensive potential there with with most of
that lineup. You know, they can all hit a dinner. So yeah,
it was it was a good series for you know, they've played really
well. And Gallon and Kellyer, you know they're not they're not Noda and
Wheeler as a duo, but I think Gallon can can certainly hang with one
of those two, and then we'll we'll see how it goes. The ball
pen still scares me a bit. Poorsy Wall has been a good addition,
but I think if you're worried about the Phillies ballpen, you should also be
worried about the fallen Yeah, I feel like we're we're in a position where
we're going to see two well, yeah, Gallon versus wherever he goes against
School will be a strong day, like Kelly, a little bit less sense,
but it still feels like that's like two strong pitching days, and then
we're going to have like a Suarez versus part day where it's like, hmmm,
like basically both teams are like, can we get five innings from you
please, like before we have to go to a semi questionable bullpen. It's
not even like you say, like not even like these some like the ways
some of the Dodgers have maybe done it in the past, or even like
that have the Asteris have done it in the past, which is, yeah,
we'll get to five innings and then we'll just throw out the bullpen and
it will just be shut down, shut down and shut down. So we
only need you to get three and a half four innings or whatever and then
we can go to the bullpen. This is really much like no, like
we really need you to kind of pitch as many innings as possible here,
mate. Yeah, it's I mean Andrew sal Frank is in this dimond band
back small pen and like this is a reliever that even I'm not very familiar
with. What has he got ten the third regular season innings and he's pitch
on the third displayoffs. I mean it's, yeah, struck out a bunch
of guys in the miners, but again questionable command. And this is a
guy who's you know, ended up on their postseason rosters, so that's kind
of kind of where they're at. I think we might be looking at a
short short rest start or two in this NLCS if it gets that far.
You know, I think the Diamondbacks is definitely going to look at their options
and go, well, Gallon on the short rest is better than anything else
we have to offer right now. That's that's very possible to me. So
yeah, it could be. You know, Game three, Game four could
be some rough pitching games. But you know, Ifart did well against the
Dodgers and anything can happen in the post. So on that note, Darius,
what's your prediction then? Are you taking the Diamondbacks or are you all
on the Philadelphia Philly hype trained baby Phillies feel like the team of destiny to
me this post season, So give me the Phillies. Okay, Darius is
taking the Phillies. I am inclined to agree with you. I think the
we're having a very tight kind of moment between these two teams. But I
think Philadelphia just they just edge it like in every category, not saying like
this like this will be a like phillion five, phillion six sort of thing.
I don't imagine a sweep, but you are very much in these games
where you're like, I don't know what's going to happen come like those final
games, whether people are going to try and go on short rest or and
how they how the teams will respond with that. But yep, so that's
a backinton these predictions of the Philadelphia Phillies making the World Series again. So
congrats to the Diamondbacks. Well, yes, and so after all of the
war I think which has occurred on the NL side, the AL has been
just a little bit a little bit calmer, Like we'll start off, we
have an all Texas showdown. I feel like a showdown at the OK Corral
or something like that is what we've got. We have the Astros versus the
Rangers. So let's start off with the Rangers, who continued their winning ways
and kind of I don't think brushed aside Baltimore is is the right way because
they were the first two games were entertaining. I think the score slightly flat
as Baltimore in the ended like it in the second game, but that first
game really could have gone anywhere. And then obviously from then onwards it just
just went into the Texas favorite. I think what's again, hitting like this
is what's shown to be the difference in postseasons so far. Some power,
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I watched a pretty decent chunk of that first
game and Carl Bradish, you know, it looked pretty good most of the
time and sort of didn't quite break his way, but he you know,
I think he struck out nine and was with a good start, and the
Orias just couldn't really get the bats going. And then set the second game,
I just felt like, you know, they both sort of had difficult
first innings and Grayson Rodriguez kind of got out of it without giving up a
run and Montgomery didn't, and they wrap it up to nothing, and I
just thought, you know, you just got to come out here just to
come out get a couple of outs, you know, just settle everything down,
established that lead, and instead he's walking guys, that's you know,
he's not finding the zone. You know, a couple of unlucky there was
an infield hit in there, and it was just like exactly what you didn't
need. I sort of felt like the Oriols just needed that, like can
we just hold this lead for a and just to kind of get ourselves into
this game, and it didn't happen, and I felt up the series went
went away from them from there. So yeah, you know that we're going
to see this Orios team in the playoffs a lot over the next few years.
I'm sure they'll be fine. And I think people have not had to
talk about it that much this week because Atlanta and Philly have just kind of
overshadowed everything. But it was, yeah, a disappointing playoff performance for a
one hundred and one win team. But you know, I don't think we
believed that they were one hundred and one win quality, and we saw that
the pitching is maybe not quite there yet. So yeah, I expect that
the areas will be back here next season, and I expect they'll be back
here with a better pitching stuff than they had this. Yeah, and that's
a thing I think I think in the In the previous podcast, I talked
to whether whether it might be a little bit of experience might make a difference
in this this sort of torn the sort of series. I don't know if
it did or not, but obviously, like the two out of the three
youngsters did not really show themselves up in a particularly good light when it came
to the start of pitching line, whereas you look at Evaldi looking like he's
a freaking postseason masterpiece again like makes the yeah, makes the freaking makes the
good old double deed contract kind of actually look like it was worth the money
or whatever. Or yeah, I don't I don't know what happened because if
the veloscy was down and he looks really rough, and then he came out
against the Rays and I was like, what who is this is? Like
good ev Oldie again, like he just looked. I was chatting to Robin
the What's happened? I was like, yeah, he did look bad,
but it doesn't now it's really really good. So god knows what they did,
whether he's you know, just had a bit of rest or you know,
had an injection or something to help him sort of throw a bit harder
and get that stuff back. But he has looked fantastic. And I've got
to be honest, you know, if Max Scheza comes back, I'm I'm
going to be rooting for the Rangers pretty hard because I love Max and the
intensity of that guy is made for the postseason and yeah, I mean viral
rights this season should be over given the injuries had, but he's not having
it. So if he does come back and pitch in the ALCS, then
you know, we get a vintage Max start out of it, because I
just love to watch that guy in big spots really, But yeah, it's
interesting because I'd almost think that, like, they almost don't want him back
as a starter. They need him as a reliever. Would you take like
three one inning outings from sus throwing absolute gas? Because I watched a fair
few of these games in every single time that a rold As Chapman took them
ound, I was going like, why is a Rolder Chapman taking the mount?
He isn't the same picture like he used to be. This is like,
this is one of those like terrifying relief performances that like, honestly from
from from watching Class A a bit this year where it's just it's like two
walks and three strikeouts. It's like, ah, please, don't breaking like
load the bases or walk like the walk like the eighth and ninth hitter,
and then some have to strike out like the top three, but somehow managed
to kind of get through it. It's it's it's terrifying obviously, I think
the Clerk has looked looked pretty good for them so far, and a few
of the others who have kind of like have shown that they can do what
they need to do. But this is the third team in the championship Series,
which I'm good to say the bullpen is an issue, and maybe the
last four or five years of postseason baseball we've really said the bullpens have been
key to like winning postseason baseball. And yeah, that doesn't look it's gonna
want what's gonna win win them this season? No it doesn't. And yeah,
anything goes I suppose, especially with relievers. But yeah, I just
I don't if I'm a Ranger fan, I do not want to see Chapman
coming out to the mountain anything remotely approaching a close game. It's good.
I've been as a Clerk fan for a long time, so it's it's fun
to see him coming out and pitching some good, solid, high leverage innings,
you know, and you know, looking pretty comfortable and some pretty big
spots so far. So that's been fun. But yeah, you do feel
like this is a team where, yeah, if they could just say,
hey, Max, will you just come out and finish this one off for
us because we don't trust anybody else. I could believe that, but yeah,
then again, then again, do you want him over some of their
other starting options at this point because Andrew he and has been up and down.
Maybe John Gray's back, maybe he hasn't, but he's not the best
of seasons. So I wonder after EVOLDI and Montgomery whether they're just going to
say, yeah, let's let's go to Max because we hope that he's all
right and we don't love our other options and starting situations either. Yeah,
So is there anything else that kind of jumps out has been good or bad
from the Texas team from that? Obviously, they're now five and zero in
the postseason, so there's got to be some more good out there. I
think. I think the thing that's stood out that you know, I wasn't
like super expecting is Evan Carter. And I know he sort of he had
some impressive stats when he came up, but he was also striking out a
bunch in his little cameo in September, and I just wasn't expecting this from
him. But he looks super disciplined at the plate. Is uh, you
know, he's taking walks in really big spots. He has at times.
You know, I felt like every time I've turned on the game with the
Rangers and nurreals, it was like his Evan Carter in a big spot and
he's getting on base again. And not that the Rangers need it, because
you know, they got See and Semi and and Mitch Garver's hitting like a
madman and a donnas Garcia. You know, there's there's talent up and down
this lineup. They certainly don't like need Evan Carter to be a superstar,
but right now he looks like one of the most formidable parts of this lineup.
So that's that's been the surprise for me. But other than that,
I just I just think every time I watched that secret the player, I'm
just like, why you guys throwing him in pitching the strike zone because like
it's just like crushed every single time if you can reach that ball at is
getting just like, just don't do it. I deal with somebody else.
Stop pitching to Corey Seger in big moments. Yes, I think that's that's
been like that key one. Segar has absolutely like done what is needed for
the team. I think obviously, I think Simeon has been a little bit
not off the boil, but just not coming up to the same standard as
maybe some of the other guys around him. But Garva's done his stuff.
I do. I don't want to hear how young Carter is again. I
feel like I heard it too many times in the series against the Rays,
but hearing it every single time that he comes up the bat, it's like,
you know what, you can mention that he's twenty one once, you
dont need to imagine that he's twenty one every single bat multiple times. It's
like, cool, I got it. I know it's on your little statue
in front of you that you're kind of like you're talking from, but like,
yeah, let's not just recaut the same fact again and again and again.
But hey, so they just already kind of teased or even said brazenantly
out loud. There is a Texas battle because the Houston Astros, once again,
for the seventh season in a row, have made the Alcs and Darius
I talked to Rob the other week about looking at that pitcheam line up and
going like, yeah, what like a Kidi have like Valdez Verlander and like
look beyond that, and Rob rightly pointed out, like they've not been all
been at that level this season. They've not all been like the pictures that
they were in in twenty two only to which made them seem like unbeatable last
postseason. But they pretty much all showed up for this postseason, didn't they
know? They did? Yeah? I mean something, Christian Haavier is like
the nick castis the pitching side. I feel like it's just like postseason start.
Man, I'm I'm there, I'm all over like five walks, nine
strikeouts. Yeah yeah, yeah, like yeah he was. He was walking
a lot, but they could not hit him, you know. And some
of them I was just like, just don't swing, guys, just let
let him pitch and see what happens, because they were just hacks being taken
at the slider that were just nowhere near. And yeah, I was like,
just just leave it alone. But I think he's got he's got some
ludicrous record, isn't he now in terms of postseason starts without a run giving
up in a row. I can't remember exactly what it is, but yeah,
it's it's pretty impressive. So yeah, I think Valveez is the one
who looked vulnerable weirdly, but Jose he's come up in these big spots before,
and pitch well Erlander has kind of got that you know, postseason monkey
off his back and he's looking pretty impressive. And then the one team I
think that I'm not worried about the bullpen is the Astros. You know,
they look they are great. You're pressed at the back end, but I
love a film with Tom Briana Bray has been great this year. Just yeah,
guys, you're like, yeah, we get to the fifth, we
can turn the ball over to them, no problem. So and then then
you have the order problem, right Whi's just like I get like, if
you don't if I'm saying, don't pitch to Cory Seger, like just don't
just do the intention of walk. At this point, I think dude is
absolutely terrifying. And yeah, if I was a team, you know,
with a high leverage spot, I would send him to first place without thinking
about it. It's not worth it. Yeah, obviously, Alvarez being phenomenal
is so much to be inspected. There was a really interesting point on the
Barbercast podcast, like today or maybe yesterday, they're like, if you just
say Tommy like March that the Astros are making like the NLCS. It'd be
like, oh, yeah, so they like Alvarez has had a good season,
bloody body blar, like jsier Breer was coming and being like a power
hitter for them and done his stuff, and well, if you ignore the
first four and a half months of the season, he'd then just be like,
oh wait, yeah, this is the Joseia Brawer that they signed for
like a three year deal or whatever it was, and you're just being like
he was actually going to be like then, like a good hitter, power
hitter for them, But he's come a lot in the posts. Yeah,
it's weird, like I don't know if he has been hurt, you know
and not really let on or what even you know, even over yeah,
most of the second half he still wasn't any like much good. He got
better compared to his terrible start, but yeah, it wasn't until September that
he started to come alive a bit more. And now yeah, he's you
know, hitting four hundred and forty foot bombs and kind of looking like regular
old Josea Brow which is a bit terrifying for the opposition. So yeah,
it's it's not maybe quite the lineup that it was once, but you know,
when you've still got Altuve and Tacker and Bregman backing up those guys.
You know, Jeremy Pane was watching his EVP last year. He's not had
the best defensive season, but they're all they're all capable. And then Chad
McCormick's mega breakout year. You know, the lineup is deep. It's it's
not Texas. I don't think it's necessarily going to be able to quite you
know, compete with that on paper. But at the same time, over
seven games and given their pitching advantage, I think is obvious that, yeah,
you do still feel like the Estros are the team to beat, don't
you. That's that's how I feel about it. Yeah, we quickly talked
about it, but like Presley just has looked phenomenal in his couple of games.
I was watched that last inning and it was like just people like they
didn't if they swung at anything, they missed, like they were leaving the
pitchers that were just like out of the zone, not by much, and
it was I think it was like he took two three one counts and struck
guys out with them, and so you're just like, it's just it's unbelievable,
Like how how good he is? I was they're talking. I think
this thing. It's like it's now sixteen postseason games in a row that he
he's pitched in without giving up a run, and he only gave up like
one run in that outing to Boston. And if you go back that was
in like twenty twenty one, If you go back into twenty twenty, like
there's still like another six or seven. They only gave up two runs in
one game in twenty twenty as well. So if you think basically he's pitched
at least, so he pitched what seven games in twenty twenty, he pitched
nine games in twenty twenty one, he pitched ten games in twenty twenty two.
When he's pitched two games in twenty twenty three, he's given up runs
in two of those appearances so far as a reliever, which is like how
I think about relievers in clutch moments. It's not like how many runs they
give up, but just do they give up any runs? Yes or no?
Like giving up one run is probably blowing it in most regards. The
more it is trivial. It's just unbelievable that he seems to do this because
I think each year we don't talk about him being the best reliever in baseball
like it's been Liam Hendrix, it's been i would say Class A last season,
it's been Josh Hader. He's always just but he's actually been the one
that's spanished just to be like third or fourth best reliever in baseball for five
years now. Yeah, he's kind of Harvard, just just below that top
tier for a really long time. But I mean when you look at is
that's in Houston, you know, sixty seven the Razo point nine to six
whip is just unbelievable. Yeah, three hundred and fifty three strikeouts in two
hundred and seventy six innings. Yeah, it's it's all elite, it's all
a leap production, and arguably he's maintained that better than anybody else in that
span. You know, Hayds had had his blips obviously, Class A.
You've you've talked before this season about about those difficulties this year. Hendrix obviously
the circumstances out of his control. But when you look at the past five
years, who has been the most consistent elite believer in baseball that probably is
Ryan Presley, right, Yeah, and so I feel that I'm not if
I'm reading the room correctly here, Darius, you are you are steering towards
a repeat of the last World Series. I am very dull. I am
steering towards that. Yeah. As much as I want a mad Max postseason
come back, I'm going to go with the Astros, mainly because of yours,
to be honest, But that's how I feel. Yes, And it's
kind of interesting. I think this is the only point of the season where
saying a repeat of this World Series would be like the boring take. Like
anything, if you've said at any point during the season, you're going to
saying that, like Houston versus Phillias is the World Series again, a lot
of people would have been like, that's a spicy take there, like you're
really discarding some other people. But we're two we away now from this being
a possibility again, and to lay any doubt, I'm agreeing with this again,
given that Houston are the end period pick I've managed to get right so
far this postseason, I've now got to jump on that for the rest of
the postseason. But yeah, given that not that long ago, there was
a real possiblity that they wouldn't be in this postseason, I think, you
know, saying Astrois Phillies would Yeah, I actually have qualified as something of
a hot take, and you know, maybe a month ago. So yes,
So we do are now predicting a Houston Philly final, And as we've
done for the last couple of postseason podcasts, I will ask you, Darius
Well, to predict the World Series winner from the two of these. Obviously
we will be discussing what's gone on in the Championships between them and the World
Series. But Darius, do you have are you going to go out and
say are you on Vibes or are you on the first World Series repeat in
twenty two years on team Vibes? Here, Phy's are the team of destiny,
Bryce Harper all the way, I'm going for Yep. I'll stick with
Houston just to give because the only team that have proven you right. So
yeah, got back my horse. Like my initial thinking of the Dodgers made
winning the World Series was yeah, not quite. More bad news out of
Milwaukee, by the way, Brandon Woodruff has gone undergone shoulder surgery expected to
miss most of, if not all, the next season. Yes, we're
kind of in that time frame of hearing about all the different surgeries that have
happened to people, and you're kind of like, I saw like that Lindora
had had something taken up his elbow. When you're like, have you managed
to have like a sixth season? Take a moment, Francisco Lindoor goes thirty
thirty six war season and this wasn't like, oh I felt this like halfway
through. It was like, oh, in spring training, my elbow was
bad and he had a six war season like insane. Let's have you know.
We do the underappreciated thing too much, probably, but I don't think
that we can do it too much with Francisco Lindor, who samonth No,
remains underappreciated in New York and is just an unbelievable baseble player who apparently with
bone chips in his elbow, is still one of the very best in baseball.
Yes, like you're going to get nothing but praise given to Lindorf from
me being a Cleveland baseball fan and all of the stuff that he did with
us. I think he has potentially taken that Mantle from her mirrors as the
most underrated player in baseball, which is ridiculous thinking that he's in the New
York market, but he had a bad three weeks to start his career there
and then everybody's thought that's been the same. But so here we are.
We do believe that it is going to be a Philly versus Houston final,
but we disagree on who will win. Obviously that's going to play out over
the next few days of weeks. We now get to the point where MLB
decides to schedule as little out of baseball as possible. So I don't think
we have many days where we will have two games being played at the same
time. I think, is it just like Monday? I think we get
two games one basically. I think we only have like the odd game now,
which is actually at a reasonable time for a British audience, which is
effectively when there are two games on at the same time, they pull one
slightly earlier so we can actually watch one. I think Thursday, yeah,
game three to four, going three the NLCS Game four of the ALCS will
be then and then we get the same on Friday if we need it,
obviously, but yeah, we are. We are starting to run out obviously
of the UK, even even semi friendly UK. The you know, I'll
watch the first few innings u GA, and then obviously we'll get to the
World Series where it's so, yeah, time to stay up late or wake
up early. I suppose yes, And who knows obviously what will continue.
I imagine that if the Philadelphia team make the postseason, I mean, makes
the World Series, I do believe the Passy Youngs and Waterloo will probably be
open till six am every single day off the series. So as someone who
did that for the first game of the season last year, it was definitely
a worthwhile experience and would thoroughly recommend people getting down to do that sort of
thing if you can. Watching games of baseball into the wee hours of the
morning with people is a phenomenal experience and it's one of the fun one of
the fun sides of British baseball that we don't get to actually kind of have
that often. Yeah, and you know the fact that it's a bit a
Phitty's bar I suppose ready adds to that element of it, doesn't it,
Because yeah, we don't have many team specific things here in the UK.
But having them congregate, I imagine it must be quite a lot of fun.
Oh yes, oh yes. And I imagine with their new one in
the nine Elms, which is right next to the US Embassy, I could
imagine that that will get a few people in a little bit late. I
don't know what the late licensings they'll have on that one would be like,
but if they they'll probably be trying their best. But yes, we are
digressing. This round of the postseason Baseball is done. I do feel that
we have now forgot what it was? Was it the Was it the Booking
dot Com after falling back on completely saying every single one in the previous bracket,
I think it was the thedivisional Booking dot Com series. We now have
our lone Depot Championship series. Have to get the they have to get the
plugs in Darytes. I hope paying you for this, Oh yes, of
course, because in the postseason a picture by Adobe I can I can never
get over the little L in Lone Depot. Literally every time I see it
for the Marlins Stadium, it really bothers me. Yeah, I just think
it's a capital ie and then I'm like eowen Ewen depot. No, that's
not right. Yeah, it's very offensive and on that bombshell. I will
obviously tell you find listeners that you can find us on Twitter at Backflips Underscore
Nerds. You can find our website at backflips and nerds dot com. We've
had some great articles about some reviews off the season out there from the teams
that have kind of their seasons are no longer with us. I do thoroughly
recommend that you give a few of them a good read because it's a great
great viewing onto teams you may have not watched too much that have actually come
on with them season and understanding what's happened to them. So thoroughly recommend to
that. Obviously, we will be back in the short term. We will
continue to be jack offs. You have been listening to the Backflips and Nerd
podcast. I hope you all have a glorious few days with our baseball and
get to the Championship Series to watch some more glorious baseball.