Toby bell Ringer. Welcome to bat Flipping Nerds. Hello, I'm watching to
Backticks and podcast with a British twist. I am Darius Austin and we've got
a host of good news MLB stories coming at you tonight. Do you wanting
me to discuss those uplifting moments? It's rob nevera rob. How are you?
I am ready to get cheery, cheery, cheery, cheery about the
things that have happened in baseball over the last couple of weeks. Because this
is fun. It's fun baseball. It's fun. If you're a fan of
the Seattle Mariners right now, baseball it's fun. We can talk about that,
though that might be might be a source of levity. I guess we'll
go off the top with the Wander Franco story, or you know, lack
of substantive story. But if you've not been keeping up, Wander Franco has
been the subject of allegations that he's been in relationship with multiple underage girls in
the Dominican Republic. Today in Major League Baseball announced that he will be placed
on administrative leave, which is sort of the standard procedure in this kind of
event. He's going to be investigated by the Attorney General and the d or.
It sounds like it's already happening. Em I'll be you're going to conduct
their own investigation the Raiser, you know, saying all the normal legal things.
You would expect the Raise to say that they will be going along with
this and supporting the investigation. And we don't have a ton more information than
that. So I don't know if you have anything to say, Rob as
a Raised fan other than this is a bit rubbish, isn't it. I
mean, a bit rubbish is probably an understatement. I mean, the thing
right, it runs from possibly a bit misguided, too absolutely abhorrent and there
there's not really anything better than those those sort of two outcomes of the scale,
you know, So, I mean it is important to say at this
point it is all speculation. If you have a look online, you will
see everything from this has been with multiple underage women. You'll see it was
just a spurious extortion attempt. You'll see. You know, it was also
when he was a minder that there's all sorts of rumor, all rubbish.
We haven't got a clue, haven't got a clue. Right now, we
know that a young family is in is in disarray. His wife, unfortunately,
who has been kept very very private, she never wanted to be named.
That that's now all out there, so so that we've got to the
point already very very quickly here where there are no winners. Nobody, nobody
wins here. Now this is this is horrible for everybody. It's horrible if
there have been a horrible, abhorrent crimes committed. If it hasn't, then
then horrible things have happened to his family. And it's it's just it really
it dented not to make this about me in any way shop on that that
is ridiculous, but it's put such a such a taint that has really sort
of dented my interest in baseball and fandom over the last couple of weeks because
it's it's just inescapable, and it is it is really horrible. And I've
almost sort of understood that keep politics out of baseball crowd just for a moment,
just from kind of got what they sort of mean, because baseball's my
escape. And yet I'm now being confronted with with this, which is which
is awful. And as I said, it's not about me, not about
me for a for a moment that it is ridiculous for me to even sort
of bring that up. But but it's been horrible, you know, and
and I don't see a way that this is this is going to end.
Well, it's it's it's not going to be great and so so yeah,
it's it's a real cross section of society. And this is this is the
problem with baseball is that there are so many people involved in it. You're
going to get all the characters that you get from everyday life. We've all
had to come across awful things happened to people. We've all seen, whether
they'd been real or whether they been fake whatever. But I mean, it's
the escape has disappeared over this last week and it's been it's been really really
horrible to have to watch it'd all unfold very very slowly. But here we
are. You know, the wonder Franco debacle will roll on for a very
long time. This isn't this isn't going away anytime soon. So you know,
strap in, we're here for the long run on this one. Yeah,
absolutely, these things take time. We all remember the Trevor Baur situation
and how long that went on, and obviously even if Franco is cleared in
a legal sense by the authorities in the DR, then them'll be made well
still impose our own penalty depending on what comes out of this investigation. So
I think at this point it does seem like hoping for the less bad shades
of bad than anything else. Really, yeah, there is any lightness to
be taken from the situation tool It has been provided by Bob Nightingale, who
a couple of hours ago has tweeted, wonder Franco's administrative leave is not indefinite,
but there's also no end date, which he seems to be. We
can always count on Bob for something coming a definition of indefinite, but good
old Bob for slightly lightning the moving, what is mooding? What is what
is horrible from every other angle, But putting Franco aside, then well,
you know, it's not really a baseball question at this point anymore. Do
you want to talk about the rest of the Rays and how that's going or
is that too depressing because you know, there has been other major news involving
the Rays. Roster of the more more typical baseball type what roster you know,
it's it's starting to look a lot like the Durham Bulls at this point,
especially in the rotation. My goodness, I mean, somebody will be
able to pull stats and tell me how how other teams have had more injuries
or more war on the injured list. But it just seems to be really
really focus with the rays, like it's pointed at one particular section. I
think we're beyond doubt now that they are doing something with their guys, which
is a bit iffy. But Shaye McClanahan now gone for all the rest of
this year and next year, with year to another, Tommy John adding to
the list, with Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs and the ongoing issues with Tyler
Glass now and they've all had a bit of it and we're just waiting for
the next one to go. I had a little bit of a rant on
our well Now WhatsApp group the other day about get again. This is stopping
it being fun. Now. I get it, injuries are part of sport,
but I'm just waiting for the next elbow to go. Twang, And
I think there's a there's a sort of generic feeling around Raised fandom right now
that this has been It's been great year, like let's go and watch some
great baseball, but then it's still just being taken away by again a fundamental
issue with the sport, and that is that pictures can't can't do this.
They just clearly can't do it anymore. Like the injury rates are ludicrous,
like absolutely off the charts that if you were doing anything else like this in
a workplace setting, you would stop it and you'd have the HSC round very
very quickly, making sure that somebody goes to prison. Like if you can't
just keep doing this at work, if I chopped as many fingers off at
work operating a saw as raised baseball pitchers are now on the I l with
dodgy and flamed arms and elbows, yeah, I wouldn't have any fingers left.
It's it's silly. I mean you must you must find that at some
point you just you know, it just deflates you when you're like, oh,
that guy's injured. Now, there's no more fun in that baseball off
pops another thumb. I do like the idea of getting the HSC in seeing
what they make of this situation over in Tampa Bay. Oh these elbows breaking,
sir, Yeah, you're probably right shut the whole thing down immediately when
they just stretch out another reliever and you're just it's just like the time,
the time is ticking. Everyone's looking at Zach Ltelle. I'm thinking Arson and
how long? How long? How long is it going to be till till
you trip on the stairs which aren't properly indicated and have an accident at work?
I mean, Zach is amazing in his own right, though, isn't
it. Because here's a guy who basically never started in the majors. We
had in San Francisco a couple of years, you know, I think they
did a couple of opening games for us or something, and the Rays,
you know, pick him up for free and they're like, yeah, we
think he can start. And guess what kind of looks like you can start?
I mean, so, on one hand, the Rays of falling apart.
On the other hand, they just grabbed this guy who's like an above
average major league starting picture out of literally nowhere. There's an inefficiency there that
they've they've worked out something, haven't they, Because they did the exact same
thing with Jeffrey Springs, who until his elbow came flying out as he wangged
his head on something in the workplace that was hanging too low and hadn't been
properly inspected until his elbow destroyed itself. He was, you know, beginnings
of what looked like a so young discussion season. You know, Andrew Rasmussen,
he was. He was a reliever as well at long points. So
there definitely seems to be a market inefficiency that the rays of yet getting popped
upon here whereby you can ride the quickly exploding elbow over a reliever for a
half season of decent starts before he does to come to nature. So yeah,
there's something there. Dist Rather they didn't keep exploding with elbows, it
would be nice. I think robot elbows are It's time. It's time that
we remove elbows and put some sort of motorized flinging machine in this instead.
This feels like a conversation where we're having at some point in the future,
why why the future? Why not now? Why not now? I mean
like the conversation of like people are actually doing it, and you know somebody's
done it, somebody's done it in secret pitch twenty three years and the Biggs
with no injuries, and then somebody discovers he's got a bionic arm. Yeah?
Who who? We need to work this out. This is for tweeting
out later. We need to find out who the longest running picture without an
injury, the longest inning stretch without without without an injuries. That's probably not
something it's very easy to search as it. That sounds like I mean wild
Yeah, yeah, well if you had the right data basis, so you
can, I think you could probably do days on an active ruster. Somebody
with the right data basically do that. And I'll tell you who was the
last in his pitch to pitch to not not end up. I mean,
you know, somebody like Max Chrzy before he got old. I think I
went a really long time without going cyborg. But you know, they've they've
they've stopped the subscription. They're not sending out the floppy disks for his updates
anymore. Twenty ten to twenty eighteen, minimum games started in a season was
thirty one. So yeah, there you go, pretty robotic. He did
have some issues though, didn't he. Yeah, so the last few years
his back's been dodgy. I think he's had a bit of a adult you
know, he's thirty eight so I know, yeah, on one hand,
I cannot compare myself to Max Sharzer at all. On the other, when
Max City wakes up and his backst are quite right, you're like, yeah,
otherwise I can't imagine a human being. I'm less like really, but
no, he's quite intense too. But then, you know, so it's
a CD player. You know, it does its thing, it doesn't you
know, it grinds at you. You know it's it's it's tech from from
his era. Do we move on, Let's move on, Let's move on
to somebody else. You can be rather intense to me. Yes, Fam,
Rob, You've got some Tommy Fam content, pretty pretty bizarre story that
you would catch me up on just before we started. So can you review
this? It's it's got enough in it that you would start to think,
oh, but it's another sort of slightly funny Tommy FAM's a bit aggressive kind
of story. But then it's got a couple of dark elements too as well,
which sort of takes the takes the cheery podcasting fun out of it.
But so, there's been a video doing the rounds. I'm sure most of
you have seen it. If not, it would be hardly to find of
Tommy Fan having a very vocal argument with Padres Fan telling him to shut up,
and allegedly the fan may have said that he was a piece of excrement.
He didn't use the word excrement, but he did substitute it for something
that we try and keep off a podcasts. So allegedly he called him,
called him a horrible name, and it looks like Fan then gets into it
with him. Then he suggests that there's a racial element to this, and
it happens constantly from white people calling him awful names. It should when the
sort of fun drops out of it, because if that is that is true,
then again it's another abhorrent story in baseball of something that's quite unjustified.
But it does seem that Tommy Fan is quite a hothead, so you know,
you can't ignore the awful bit of that. But there is an element
of this Chap was always going to react. So if you're going to start
calling him names, what did you think was going to happen? Again?
Not great? There seems to be an investigation into some online abuse being hurled
at his thirteen year old nephew by part of his fans. Now, so
stay classy San Diego. So, yeah, it's just another horrible day of
things happening in baseball that shouldn't happen. I mean, Tommy Fam, I
mean, you could see it happen. There's a there's a there's a strangeness
to this chap who does seem to have a little bit of aggression to him.
Doesn't he be fantasy football slaps or fights outside strip clubs? You know
that these things don't don't seem to happen to the average person. You hear
about some guys who like they I think maybe, I think maybe Clayton Kosher
is one of these guys who, like I think, seems to be able
to sort of compartmentalize it and off the field, he still seems quite chill,
perfectly nice guy, but reportedly has pretty you know, like strict routine
and he gets in the zoe. I don't think Tommy Fam is one of
these compartmentalizing guys. I think Tommy Fam has a level and you know,
it helps him be a professional baseball player, but it also means that,
you know, he slaps people about fantasy football bets and yeah, I was
are fans, which, yeah, I guess as long as you put him
in the right situations, it's fine. And when he's wrong situations, maybe
not so much. He did, didn't he get stabbed a few years ago
as well? He did? He got stabbed outside the nightclub. Yeah,
no stress, I think it was maybe. I think it was a strip
club. I'm not sure. He'd have to check those details, but it
was. I think that matters. I think the difference matter. Yeah,
just these these things don't seem to happen to most people. They don't even
seem to happen to most other great, big, famous baseball stars. He
does seem to court a little bit of controversy. He does. Tommy fam
is listening, of course. I think he's a very very charming fellow,
and I have nothing nothing else bad to say about him. You certainly and
yelling the thing at him from the crowd if you happen to be I would
not to be fair the baseball player too. He's been all right this season,
trying to help get back in it. I mean to be fair to
the Padres fans. It's been a pretty frustrating year, isn't it. They
must be just yelling everything at everybody at this point. Yes, absolutely,
Yes, I don't think there's there's much reason to cheer in San Diego.
But then you know, you go to the ballpark, you want to make
some some some noise, you're gonna shout, Then why not whole some abuse
at Tommy Fam. You're gonna get a reaction, Yeah, to abuse Tommy
Fam bablips and not endorsed abusing baseball players. My lawyers are telling me I
was gonna say, let's lift the mood, but I also think we should
maybe talk about Nolan Chaniel and the Los Angeles Angels, who I mean,
can you write this stuff? They're like, we're not trying no timey,
We're going all in the trade deadline, they go out, they get Lucas
Giarlito. You know, they strengthened their roster. I think they do seven
games in a row immediately afterwards, and then their page have decided that calling
up the guy they drafted six weeks ago to play first base when CJ.
Croms on the el was the answer. Now some people have said, well,
they know they're out of it and this is just about giving a guy
some experience. But also six weeks in the miners seems a little ecative to
me. It does. It's smacks of not being able to develop players very
well, so don't let him have to see the miners. Yeah, brief,
Yeah, I'm glad you said his name for us because pronunciation shan shan
Well, was it Shan Chanuel? I've been working on Chanuel, but I'm
open to the bat. This was I was listening to something else where.
They also didn't know how to say his name, and he's still new enough
in the majors that they don't have his pronunciation on better reference. So I've
not yet caught an Angel's broadcast. No, he's been playing. He only
came up on Friday, I think thirsday. Probably As someone else with the
difficult to pronounce surname, I feel his pain. I do apologize, but
again, as someone else who has a difficult surname, I know he probably
has had this for many, many, many, many many years, and
it's probably fairly used to it. But that doesn't mean we'll get back to
you on that. Everyone. We will try and establish what his name,
how his name is actually pronounced, and get that right for him, because
yes, we know him that much. But Angels, why, what I
mean it's is this is this coming from the top. Is this Marino moves
him. It's it doesn't seem like anybody with a proper rate baseball brain is
making these decisions at this point. It does seem either flipping a coin,
leaving it up to fate, or somebody is tipping the scales in an odd
way. Yeah, you know, I think there is the element of,
as you said, is there like play development in the mind is so bad
that they just want to get him in front of the major league staff,
which at this point, like perimnation's been there a few years. Nobody's fault
that there's if, but there's if they don't trust the wide lead coaching Chanuel
Sanine Suel. Welcome to the majors, Nolan, Chanuel. And you know,
maybe it just it came so quickly after all those that flurry of moves.
It feels like this is another, you know, last ditch attempts to
get them, you know, somewhere, when that's probably not what's happening.
There is also that just vibe of like, please, can we convinced show
how we really are trying here, like we're trying anything. But it feels
to me like if you ever play, I don't know in a fantasy league
or like an OTP league, and some managers just get like on tilt far
too quickly, and they just think that doing some thing, doing anything or
like help let in like it doesn't matter what it is. I mean,
you get this with like fans in real life just yelling at guy, the
manager's change the batting order and stuff like this. Right, it's just like,
let's have the feeling that we are doing something. And this felt like
that to me, like let's let's do something. It thinks like something is
being done and maybe we show hey will go oh, you know these guys
as they really love to try to win games. To be fair to Chanuel,
he was mashing in the milence in his extremely limited sample. It did
look a bit easy for him, but he came up and immediately hitting the
majors as well. So yeah, I mean, if he's ready, he's
ready. And I think we all bemoan how long these players have to spend
in the miners. I think this may be a little bit too far the
other way, but hey, if if he's good enough, yeah, let
him play. But but what are the angels doing? I mean, you
say, do something, but what is it? Something they're pointing at.
I mean, they are going nowhere this year and they're now how far back
are the eleven games back in the divisions? There's nothing going on here,
not much going on between years. I don't think it's pretty pretty astounding.
And the thing is the pitching has been the problem again for them. You
know, it's it's not not got any better. They've actually hit pretty well
this year, but they've not been able to figure out the pitching. I
think they're one of the worst pitching staffs in the Ale. Do you convinced
of Eurotani? No, Massy. It's it's that, you know, it's
the it's the the boyfriend begging his girlfriend to stay, you know, after
she's made it very very clear that she's you know, she's got to move
on. Now he's scratching her name into the back of his arm with the
compass. It if you're looking at a good look. Anthony Rendon's doing this
weird act where like he justus existed exactly, and like even when he's in
the clubhouse, like he's just telling him. I think he told a reporter
I'm not here the other day when they asked him how his injury rehab is
going like he seems to be like I'm done. I'm done with this.
Mike Trout is you know, good for one long term injury a season minimum
now and then it's like, yeah, what what are we doing here?
You know what else is there? I don't really believe in the Mickey moniac
breakout. Well, Taylor Awards got his face broken. If you want to
look at who's got the most players on the aisle right now, it's definitely
absolutely yeah. Everyone always talks about, imagine we'd seen vintage Trout, you
know, attacking the proper team around him and playing in the postseason. But
quit just imagine vintage Trout for a minute, with a competent team developing him.
You know, he's already possibly top five baseball players of all time.
Imagine a proper team who can coach people. Probably, and if they've done
him better, how much better could he be? You know, could he
he's now? Yes, probably we would talking about Twilight Trout now, the
beginning of the Twilight Trout, but that that peak was insane. It was
incredible. If he'd been you know, pick random decent teamer, you know,
hard to think of it. The Houston Astros during their their their rise,
and right, you know, what would they have got out of him?
Do you think there was more? I then, could it have been
more? Would he have been the best player of baseball? Ever? It's
hard to say, of course, but I mean I think peak Trout might
already have been the best player in bestball. So it's a little bit scary
to think of him on the Astros and better don't I don't know what they
would have done. Yeah, maybe maybe he had maxed it out. I
don't know, but maybe that was Maybe that is the secret Trout is he
doesn't need coaching. He's managed to sort of coach himself because whenever anything goes
wrong, he's always just decided to get better at it and then immediately does.
So perhaps that's that's the cheak code that his trout is that he can
just do his own coaching. But you've got to think, you know,
if someone had had given him a bit more, not not to take anything
away, maybe the big leaf coaching in you know, the Angels system isn't
isn't bad. Yeah, they hit us do hit, but you know the
development side is not not looking pretty at all. So yeah, maybe maybe
it's more who knew? Who knows? We will never know. And as
someone invotes some kind of special machine that can send Max Sure's are back in
time to go and change the past and see what happened in the future.
I may be conflating him with a popular movie. I'm not sure would I
would watch Max and that, To be honest, I was just seeing if
you could make a team out of their IL and yeah, pretty much be
a bit short. You'd need a DH and you'd need a bit of a
bit of pitching, but not much. I've got a line. Well,
it's all right, because because if you want to want to mix two teams
together, you can have a You're gonna have a championship winning Raised team rotation
from from the I l to take and then you take the Rais rotation.
Yeah, there we go. Drop that into the Angel's IL. Yeah,
championship teams Stasy, crone, rendo, netto a shailer, adele trout wards.
You as you're starting position players. Yeah, it's pretty pretty good works.
Yeah, if they're healthy, which none of them are. Nope,
that is the problem. Angels. At least we didn't predict do well this
year. I'm straining myself so what was the prediction this year. I think
we said at three, so, you know, underwhelming. That's gonna be
a stretch. At this point, it doesn't look a bit of a stretch
here, but there's still time. Let's sit on the club side the rest
of that division. Yes, surely. Yeah, So let's talk about the
rest of the aos because this is this is a real race now and it's
involving a third team that I don't think anyone's expecting. I'm not sure that
Jerry Depota who expected this. But the Seattle Mariners have won seven in a
row and they are now two games back off the division lead because the Rangers
have dropped five in a row, and in between them in the Houston Astros.
Of course, do you do you believe the Mariners? Rob No.
I didn't believe in the Mariners last year, and I don't believe in them
this year, however, that they are doing something and it's it's not a
terrible division. There's two very very good teams in that league. There's also
the Angels in the athletics. But you know, they're doing something. And
I would say, look at the wild card right now, and they are,
you know, with the Yankees charging backwards, the Angels charging backwards,
and sort of Toronto and Boston more or less treading water. They're looking,
they're sitting. There's anthing well in that in that race. I don't think
they're going to get that division. They don't have the quality to do that.
But I think they could reasonably aim to grab a wild card spot at
this point. And I think if you had to ask us even two weeks
ago, that would have seemed almost out of the question. So yeah,
I think they've got a genuine chance. But no, don't. I don't
particularly. We're gonna upset a lot of people here, but I've already upset
Fair are a few fans with the Angels fans and probably a part of his
fans. But yeah, I don't believe in the Mariners particularly. They've got
some some great pitching, and they've got a couple of great bits, but
there's still seems to miss that rest of rest of a lineup. But it's
it's it's doing what it needs to do right now. So maybe maybe do
you believe? No, I don't, And you know I haven't believed in
this lineup for a while. I mean, part of the reason for This
is Julio Rodriguez setting an al NL record by getting seventeen hits in four games,
which is pretty unbelievable. I saw one graphic showing that he had actually
created more offense by himself than the entire Yankees lineup from those four games,
which, sure it was entertaining, if all depressing for Yankees fans. But
yeah, when people players get seventeen hits across four game you probably ought to
win the ball. That's a good starting point to go from. But yeah,
you know, they're still DH Mike Ford. They've traded for Joshu roe
House to fit in at second base. Yeah, I'm not really scared by
most of this lineup outside of Roderi Grez when he's hot, you know,
yeah, and Anderson Rally will hit some home runs. But ty France has
kind of fall off a bit this season. The bench is weak, and
yeah, I do I do love the pitching. So maybe if they get
into the playoffs and you're like, yeah, we've got a Castile and we've
got a Kebby and we've got Gilbert, they can probably feel like they're going
to take anyone absolutely and then so they should, you know, to be
very clear. I quite want them to do well. I quite I quite
liked the Mariners, are quite like watching the Mariners play. But yeah,
there's it's just still missing a little bit in in in that lineup. And
it's not it's not it's not as if it's something they couldn't have plugged in
the off season. There was, there was certainly scope, there were there
were players available, there were trades available that the Mariners could have could have
done to sort of shore up that soft underbelly. But but they didn't.
And hey, look maybe they don't need to. You know, they are
they are well in this fight. Now. All it takes is one of
those three teams to go on a little bad run, and they are they
are dropped straight out of it. But as it is right now, their
toe to toe Texas and Houston, and good luck to them. Yeah,
and it does look but we've got some races here. Obviously not in the
NL East or n L West anymore. The Dodgers are Dodgers in again about
NL West for a minute, is that the quietest twelve run twelve game lead
to a division? Like I knew the Dodgers were back on it a bit,
and I knew that the d Backs were having it rough for a little
while now, but if you'd ask me to guess, they would have said,
yeah, maybe four or five games lead. Now like twelve, Where
has twelve come from? Like that? That is sneaky twelve, Like I've
never known a lead that big. Happened so quietly. Yeah, we were
talking other day. I'm pretty sure it was the Sunday before the All Star
break the Dodgers got back into first place for the first time, and that
I was not that long ago. That was just over a month ago.
And somehow they've conjured this twelve win unastailable lead out of nowhere overnight. Yeah,
it did feel like that. I just went to look at the standing
some day and I was like, oh, the Dodges are gone now then,
yeah, the doing Backs have heated up again, but they put themselves
in such a hole whether their post All Star break around that they've only just
about caught back up with the Giants who are doing their own slide right now.
And yeah, me and while the Dodgers have just kept chugging along and
winning. So that's that's over. And I think the Twins have locked up
the Al Central. But I think we should give credit to John McGee here
because he said the Cubs were selling at the deadline and okay, over at
the NL Central. Now here are the Cubs fixed them. Let's fi him.
They're right in there card right right now, and they're two and a
half games behind the Brewers. So fair play John, good work at that
wild card race. It's it's not overly strong, is it. I mean,
the teams that are chasing the clubs at this point, none of them
are overly scary. I mean, if you talk about preseason scary clubs,
you've you've got the Padres well out of it, the Cardinals well out of
it, the Mets well out of it. You know, you're when you're
being chased down by Cincinnati and Miami, you can you know they're decent enough
to be in the race. Absolutely, they They're totally deservedly there. But
they're not the sort of terror that you would maybe have looking over your shoulder
a little bit more in the American League at the moment. No, it
definitely, especially with some of the runs these teams have been on, it
feels like the who's going to not lose it the least rather than who's going
to like seize the wild card spot race, you know, with the Diamondbacks
in the mix for that division title a month ago and they're not anymore.
The Marlins have really really dropped off, and yeah, so it's like,
yeah, when you're looking at the Reds and the Marlins and like the Giants
lineup has just been absolutely dreadful, you're not thinking, Wow, this is
the teams of the quality that you know, the Houston and the Rays and
even even you know, the Mariners have been of late. You know,
I don't look at the you don't look at the Giants rotation and go,
well, yeah, this is the same seat out And it's fine that their
lineup is terrible because it's not. They piece it together, they figure it
out, but they don't you know, it's Logan Web and then a bunch
of guys that they're trying to maximize. Padres. I still hot, Spicy
Jake, think the Padre's stand a really decent chance of making the postseason this
year. That they've got them run differential. They clearly have the personnel,
no one's no one is doubting that, you know what they are only what
five games back in the wild Card at this point. I you know,
if you were to look at any team to surge up through that lot,
you know, you think Miami have sort of had their bit of this season.
The d Backs have had their little flash. The Reds were suddenly there,
you know, very very much ahead of where we expected them to be.
I think there's time for the for the San Diego Padres, who still
seem to be playing a little bit underneath the expected you know, expected wins
at this point. I think I think there's enough in them there that they
really could make a little charge. It only takes a little just a little
charge, and they could be straight up into that worldcud spot. There's not
much to mo muge in it. Well, i'll playoff words agree with you
at BPP because they still have San Diego with a better chance of making the
playoffs and Arizona. So I didn't think much of Arizona at the start of
the season, which explains a lot of that. I think the fan graphs
maybe slightly more, but they share the Padres is down at fourteen point seven
percent to get them wild card spots. So but you know, there's there's
still a chance. And yeah, when you look at those line ups,
if you've just presented them to people and shair understandings, you'd be like,
well, obviously, Padres, we've got the best team. Yeah, wells
doing it? Then hell, well the Cubs have like got some some interesting
Cody Bellinger is just back. Yes, it's been a weird kind of Cody
Bellinger. He wasn't hitting the ball very hard early in the season. That's
kind of come back a bit. Obviously, our mate Niko Horner is have
another nice season. I think, you know, I don't know if we've
really talked about it on the pod, but the whole short stop you know,
who's going to get the best short stop this offseason? And I don't
know that many people really said it was going to be Swanson, but it
has been twins and so far. Yeah, he's having a great season,
so fair play to him, and the Cubs were making that signing, and
yeah, you know they've done some interesting things. On the pitching side has
been great. You know, we saw him in London, who was great.
He's kind of kept that going all season on. Really Strums fallen off
with this injury and now he's got a issue which is worrying. And then
yeah, I don't look at the Cubs and think, if this team gets
into the playoffs, they've got the pitching to go anywhere. You know,
they've they've definitely been piecing it together. Karla Hendricks has come back and you
know, pitched well to be fair to him, but he's not you know,
he might he might be their number two in the playoffs. Like,
I don't think it's going to cut it. And I'll give get some credit
to add but Alzada as well, who's sort of shifted to their closer and
he's been really good. But yeah, they still feel like a team with
holes. The good news for them, I suppose is that, yeah,
most of these world god teams are not that good, and if the Padres
don't get in, you know, the Fiddies are probably the best of the
bunch, so you never know there's a chance. But you stack him up
against the Graves of the Dodgers and it's like, yeah, this is this
is not going to work, not going far as it. Yeah, the
Braves are they are they They've got to be sort of the best consensus winners
for a long time, right, I Mean we've had that super team of
the Dodgers, a couple of years ago, and we've we've had that,
but there's been super teams at least on the other side of the other side
of the divisions to potentially going to get them at the the World Series.
But I mean, who's who's a patch on Atlanta right now? Perhaps good
Dodgers are a distant second at this point, but they're they're just they're on
their own plane, aren't they. Yeah, I think so. I mean,
you look at that lineup and it's just they all hit. There's so
much threat up and down their acunits of horstling a stupid season, But Matt
Alson is leading the majors in home runs. You've got Alb's, You've got
Riley, You've got Michael Harris, who's really turned it around well after a
like Specter actually slow starting an injury, and then like Sean Murphy has been
unbelievable trade for them as well, you know, playing really good defensively and
just hitting really well for a catcher two. So I think, you know,
the question is maybe the back end of that rotation has not been as
good. But when you can roll spend a Strider out for any single start,
then you've got to feel pretty good about yourself absolutely, So yeah,
I think I think, you know, you might say, who's there,
number four in the playoffs or something like that's not necessarily great, But then
you don't look at the Dodgers and you don't think, well, they've got
an absolute star there. You know, they've really struggled with injuries. They
didn't really go for it. Lanslin has predictably been great since, but well
we'll see if that continues. And curse. You're, yeah, hope,
hopefully he's healthy still, but when he's out there, he's still elite,
but you don't know if he's going to be out there and he's got his
postseason curse of course. The old and then the lineup is it's more pieced
together, isn't it. It's Bets, it's Freeman, it's Smith, it's
you know, Max muntyon is one nightty average, but HiT's a home run
every twenty five appearances. And then it's like, you know, it's platoon
central out there. They've really kind of had to sort of piece this together.
It's not the Braves lineup where they don't really move guys around. It's
the same nine out there every game. It's a lot of you know who's
starting today, how we match it up, which can work, but you
don't feel as scared by it. You don't look at the whole lineup and
think, wow, this is great. It's like Smith and then it's like,
oh yeah, and there's James Altman and rohas and you know Armed Rosario
who even the Gardens didn't want, you know, and they don't hit,
so yeah, and then you look at you look at the Brave and you
see the team that won the World Series a couple of years ago, plus
Ana who was called absent for that postseason run. You know that doesn't make
any team worse having a Kuna on your side instead. So yeah, I'm
scared of Yeah. I think that they're a scary team, probably probably the
scariest team if you're an opposing starting picture. I think, Okay, do
you have any I don't feel like we should do it too bad? Do
you have any any good news stories? Oh? No, good, Mike
good? Was that the al West is fun? That was about as far
as I got this week because it was quite depressing trying to do some research
for it. And no, I don't I don't really have another. Have
you got another good well? I've got a contentious good and people are getting
mad about this because they're mad last time we talked about it, but Gunna
Henderson bought more orials, really turned it around it himself after a slow start
of the season, looking like the starfiam And thought he would be. He
was. He was single short of the cycle, the easiest hit to get,
obviously all he needed in a single. He slaps the base hit down
the right field line, you know, all the way into the corner,
and he does not stop at first base. He legs it to second for
a double. And I just want to say, well done, Gonna Henderson,
because the double is better than a single. And I like it when
we get these reminders that like, actually he was like, you know what,
I'm just going to try and help actually help my team score some more
runs instead of going for an individual achievement. That's basically just because of our
interest in like statistical curiosities instead of anything to do with value. Obviously Gonna
Henderson could have had a single. He doesn't care, and we don't care,
And I look forward to your angry tweets and messages as we've got last
time. But that's my good. I think I'm most annoyed and angry at
the official scorer if I'm honest, because you know the kind of point is
people, really, it's obviously when it hits a hit, So why why
could he not have Just that's me me coming at the official scorers crowd come
at me. Uh yeah, that could have been a single with a throwing
error. So yeah, you know you could have. You could have.
You could have fulfilled both tides. You could have had your your your man
running for second and doing what he should do, and he could have had
had a cycle at the same time, and we could have finally had peace,
reaching out over the pointless baseball stats landscape, holding hands and moving into
a brighter future in a in a week of all the discourse. But no,
we didn't. We had some jobs worth official scorer that this wasn't a
throwing error, so yeah, no, not having it fair enough. I
will also add that Bryce half hit are pretty fine inside the park home run
over the weekend, so that was pretty cool. It was also against the
Giants and look, yeah that was a wild bounce. That was that was
I don't know how that wasn't a regular home run. Yeah, nearly hitting
the wall. Yeah, yeah, half quint to be fair is a decent
runner, but not the types of home runs you expect him to be hitting
normally. No, I'm all in favor of inside the park and runs.
Those those are fun, yes, especially the ones where it's not like anybody's
done something egregiously wrong as well, you know, yeah, like the city
Barrence is not like, it's not like somebody misplayed that. It took a
really weird like no one could have forecast that. So that that that is
a fun one. Yeah, it's much better than the center field. I
thought you could get it dived, missed, it rolled all the way to
the wall inside the park, on to the wall. Yeah, absolutely those
are less fun. There are less fun. But yeah the crazy bounce,
that's that's a good one. No, I an't any more good nothing good,
nothing good good news stories that's got really giggle right now? What we
got? What's what's what's result number one? It's not really news spools best
underdog success stories of all time from Bleacher Reply fan tracks has got big Byron
Bucks and news which I think is that he's going to play the outfield again.
Maybe can only end well. Some of these are not the optimistic Ferries.
We know something is just not good. The fourth one is cutter crawl
for Trevors story not enough in Red Sox is lost to Royals. I mean,
it's good news for the Royals. The Royles do need the wins to
be fair. They yeah, and great news for fans of the Royals or
Athletics. The two worst teams in baseball are playing each other this week,
so and that could be where the universe ends the race for the number one
pick. The Aids are on thirty five wins right now, so there's still
a good chance of not going to make it to fifty. Every time I
see this, just before we go, I wonder I didn't watch the Detroit
Tigers got fourty, one hundred and twenty in the early two thousands. Two.
I just wonder, like, because this age team is you know,
terrible, and also their own actively trying to not compete, and they're still
going to win more games than that Tigert team. And now I just kind
of were like, I'm going to do a deep dive on that Tigers team
because I don't understand, like, what how did they do it? It
takes some doing, doesn't it. I meant three hundred and nineteen. I
mean, if you just look at the if you just look at the guys
who've been DFAD over the last two weeks, I'm almost certain you could piece
together a team that would win more games right now than the Oakland A's are.
So you've got to be actively looking to be bad to actually get to
that point. Surely. I mean, there's there's there's enough just replacement level
because they're playing well a low replacement level at this point. There's got to
be enough replacement level guys who are just out there. You know, there's
got to be well. I think could they have had Zaclytell? Was he
designated for assignment at one point? Uh? Yeah, yeah, we must
think he was a waiver claim. Yeah, all DFA team. I won't
know if it's on it. Yeah, he was trance from the Rangers to
the Red Sox and a minor league deal. The Red Sox called him up,
so the raised this to the Red Sox again with Springs, and now
they've done. You almost think that that maybe hoim Bloom is still working for
the race. He's just on the employee. All the current GMS. Hoim
Bloom should know this is absolutely a guy that the race. Yeah, yeah,
May Trials for Litel was claimed the waivers by the Rays. And let
me tell you who had the waiver priority then, it was definitely the Oakland
Days. So exactly exactly. So there's a fun games you can go out
there see if you can put together a d all DFA team this year,
an all DFA team which would have a better projected war than the current Oakland
Days. I am almost certain it can be done. Yeah, I think
you're I think you're probably right. Look, I want to see what their
best war players are now, because the ones that we're doing a right have
fallen off of it as well. They Zach Geloff has been really good since
he came up to be fair to him three h four, three seventy six,
twenty four, very nice. Ryan Noda has been good, he was
there all five and Brent Brooker is there any other? Hit it over one
very quickly get into the now point ones. They only have five players offensively
worth more than half a win, and then it's just totally doable, totally
doable. And this is well, there's some homework, some homework, Yeah,
tweeter. This is probably a Russell article, isn't it. He's probably
quite like this, Well, I'm going to do it. You should do
it. Before Russell even listens to this, don't let him. He'll just
he'll just write another piece explaining why I'm wrong. Probably, but yeah,
good to give them material. So that's Rob's next article idea. Look out
for that on the side in the next ten to bigteen years. Do check
out this at flips and nerds dot com. We've obviously got a lot of
great content up there from our contributors and we've got articles from ash Day about
will the Flora is the best hitter in bab I need one of those.
We've got Tommy Corky and Macki writing about the Marlins Twins. Great work on
there, and you know the Marlins are still in it. Good year for
the Marlins fans. Charlie Deeks writes his weekly piece on Atlanta and you know
the Bras were a team worth following. And of course we've got our great
editor gave crying about the Reds perhaps blowing their wild God spot to the Cubs,
so that was a fun read as well. And we've also got a
series of rivalry pieces coming up created by Brett Walker about our personal experiences of
various roriies, so look out. Full of that. Batflips and Nerves dot
com. You can follow us on Twitter at bat flips, underscool Nerds.
Tweet us your complaints about the cycle tweters. You're all dfa team and we
will read them out next time. Bye.