WEBVTT

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Toby bell Ringer. Welcome to bat
Flip and Nerds. Hello, and welcome

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to Battlets and Nerds, these baseball
podcast with a British twist. I am

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your host this evening, Russa Leesum, and we are at the much maligned

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halfway point of the season. Some
people don't like calling it halfway because we

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are beyond halfway. But we've had
the All Star Game. We're all suffering

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with the lack of baseball, or
at least Major League baseball going on right

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now. But I do have to
fine first while individuals to give me their

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thoughts on this season so far.
So we'll start off with the man who

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gives us the spicy takes, mister
Rob Neervera. Hello, Governess, that's

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there, and my fellow Statnard Darius. How are you doing. I'm doing

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all right. How are you?
I'm doing good. I'm doing good.

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I feel there's going to be some
talk about some good stuff and there's going

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to be talk about, I think
a lot of bad stuff. But what

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we're going to do is we're going
to go through each of the league.

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So we're gonna go through the thirty
teams and effectively give them a grade for

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performances so far this season, and
also a grade against expectation. So obviously,

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if somebody's kind of started off into
the season, we didn't think they

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were doing well, and they're doing
slightly better than we're actually going to give

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them like a good grade for actually
like against expectation, Whereas obviously somebody could

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still be doing kind of good but
have just been a bit mayor and so

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it's kind of not really actually done
anything good or bad against expectations. For

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the record, I already don't understand
good. It's fine. That's how we

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want to go with them. So
Rob, pick a division, A division.

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I am going to pick the National
League Central. What a place to

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start? What a place to start? The National League Central? Okay,

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Darius in the National League Central,
let's start off with the team that has

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currently run the roost, the Brewers. Well, would what would you think

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of the Brewers season so far?
It's fine? You know, yeah,

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it's not like you know, you
looked at the Brewers roster mid John John

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would say, I don't know if
he talks about the Cubs being made,

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but it's you know, without Woodroffe, with Burns not being on it,

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there's just not not a lot exciting
here is there? And you know,

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the division kind of sucks, so
they're still in it. But yeah,

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it's it's fine. They're by beverage, but nothing exciting. Yeah. In

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my list, I've given them a
bee for the performance so far in this

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season and a see against their expectations, because I think I've got the expectations.

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I agree with the see. Yeah, I think that they're just they're

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kind of they're performing just a little
bit worse. Yeah, it a bit

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good. I mean, let's see, was like a pass when I was

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doing what I was doing gcfcs,
I mean, but for just like,

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they don't even do letters anymore,
do they. I believe they do numbers

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now, which I have no clue
about, but we all use the different

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system. I think we should use
the Greek letters. Yeah, yeah,

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Like I see was decent when I
was there, and you know what,

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the Brewers haven't been decent because what
the Brewers were supposed to do is the

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Brewers were supposed to sort of amble
to first or second in this division,

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um barely comfortably making the you know, the playoffs, really like they were

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unspectacularly going to be fine. But
they're not really fine, are they?

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I think they are that you know
that they've not got big teams around them,

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and they're not doing particularly well.
The pitching is still very good and

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the offense is just dreadful. Like
it's basically just like the Marlins and the

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Nationals. I think, who are
worse than them? So to me,

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yeah, I think the Brewers are
basically a push from where they were at

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the start of the season. I
think of looking at fangraffs, they were

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an eighty five point six win projection
team at the start of the year.

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They're now an eighty four win team
projected. So they've they've they've they've done

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it slightly worse than anticipated if you
want, with their So there are still

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favorites to win that division fifty one
percent. Obviously to our main man,

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Gabs slighted the team that are actually
a top of the division right now by

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by a game, but they do
have a slightly worse playoff making odds,

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which are the Cincinnati Reds. Rob, do you want to talk about the

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Cincinnati Reds? Yeah, but just
for are we sticking on C minus for

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the Brewers then yeah, so B
for their performance and C minus for performance

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against expectations that what we're saying,
great lovely the Reds now the red are

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I mean, we didn't expect much
from the Reds, if if we're honest,

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we were we were thinking disaster zones
with the Reds. We were thinking

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the Reds were gonna be kicking around
with the with the A's. Realistically,

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the A's and Nationals at at the
very bottom, maybe slightly above those but

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but not not really giving as much
more to talk about. But but my

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goodness, like those young guns coming
up and doing the job, like the

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Reds are not only half decent,
they're exciting to watch. They've got possibly

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the most exciting baseball player in baseball
at the moment playing for them, in

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Elie de la cruz Um. I
mean they are well ahead, shorty,

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right, like I mean, I
mean they are. They are A and

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A right, I mean maybe B
and A, but like they are,

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they are fantastic. Like no one
saw this coming from the Reds, that

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the Reds were supposed to be crap? Am I wrong? I think there's

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still a solid be on performance so
far, just because because of where they

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are like that their record is not
amazing. But as I managed to confuse

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rob with my rank the cheering system
beforehand. I actually have them as an

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S rank for against expectations because I
think they've effectively improved their expected win rate

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by about thirteen run thirteen wins already
kind of against projections, which is from

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from my calculations. Or they're effectively
like the second best like improved team from

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against expectations so far. So S
is just like it just goes above A.

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It's like super or whatever. If
you've ever played any Gatcher game in

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any existence ever, you know that
things go up to A and then obviously

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they now need to create something that
is better than A. So what's the

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Gatcher? Have you played it?
Never played a mobile game where like you

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get random like minions to fight.
That's not a moving swiftly onwards, Darius,

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I've got to be an S.
I think. Yeah, the bullpen

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Is is utterly phenomenal. The players
that brought in have made the game be

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entertaining, but they've also that troubled
a bit on the pitching side, which

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we thought what was actually going to
be their strong point. Those three young

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guns have all basically got injured.
Yeah, it's not really come from where

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we expected. I mean I think
people were excited about Denna Cruz, but

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you know, I think we should
not overlook Spencer Steer. We shouldn't overlooked

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Matt McClain. Like, they've caught
up these rookies and they've they've all been

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unbelievable, and yeah, Nicoladolo's been
hurt and not really done it, Hunter

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Green's hurt, growing Mashcraft is kind
of getting lit up, and yeah,

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it's all these young offensive rookies that
are doing the job. So that's off

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to them. I didn't know whether
to save the S for the team that

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has increased their percentage by the most, so I was also inclined to go

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A or A plus. But yeah, they've obviously massively outperformed what any of

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us expected. I think even even
gav who was relatively optimistic, said they

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were going to be about five hundred. For them to be, you know,

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while above that and within shout of
division title is pretty impressive. Cool.

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I'm happy to go with a B
and an A. We don't need

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to move into slightly more depressing territory
the Chicago Cubs, and we watched them

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obviously play an entertaining series in London, but after that initial rush that they

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had, they've not really managed to
maintain that. So I have them as

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a Oh no, I have them
as a D team, but actually kind

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of relatively in line with expectations because
I did not think much of them going

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into the season. Darius, do
you agree? Yeah, I thought there

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as a D A performance and a
B against the expectation. Yeah, the

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covers are funny one because they've still
got like the best round differential division,

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which isn't saying much, but they're
positive and everyone else is negative. But

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yeah, they've they've disappointed. I
think, you know, I thought they

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were going to be five hundred ish
team and they're they're below that. So

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I think C minus at best and
yeah, like a D performance so far.

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It's just it's a weird team.
I can't figure them out. There's

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still guys on this team that I
like a lot. I think, you

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know, there's going to be more
coming from them, but it's it hasn't

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worked and there's still a lot of
holes. And you explain, Justin Steele,

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Can I explain Justin Steel how somebody
can throw two pictures and not throw

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them particularly fast and still have a
lower in Major League Baseball? I think

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there's a deception element to it,
which is usually the answer and these things

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I don't like counting on deception going
forwards, but he does get a lot

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of weak contact. And yeah,
even though I think he's thrown a lot

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more strikes this year, and even
though the strikeout rate has gone down,

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you can tell that he is difficult
to scraw up. I mean, we

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saw him live in London and hitters
couldn't really get on top of him.

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He's obviously a difficult guy to face. So we'll see whether that continues going

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forwards. But yeah, between Steven
and Stroman it's a good one too,

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and Bell and just bounced back.
And still think that's more to come from

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Suzuki, who's you know, having
having a decent issue season. And obviously

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we love Nico Horner, but then
you look around at some of the other

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guys that the Cubs have been playing
and it's like, yeah, I can

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see while this is not going quite
how they wanted to, it's been a

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precipitous fall. I mean I was
in Chicago fairly early in the season,

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at the end of end of April, and at that point they were absolutely

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flying high. You know, they
were I mean, we'll come onto the

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Pirates in a minute. But like
the Pirates were doing insane things, but

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that the Cubs were doing, we're
doing a great job behind them. They

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were flying high, and people in
Chicago we're talking about how the Cubs were

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we were starting to find their their
feet and this was the beginning of the

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new window. But it's just dropped
off a cliff since then. You know,

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they've they've fallen a long way.
I think it's a really bad time

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for them because you start asking the
question of the Cubs sellers, and then

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you've got you've got the Stroman's and
the and the you know, the a

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couple of other guys on the team
who you've that there's the basis of a

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team here for the next couple of
years. But as they start kind of,

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you know, looking really bad,
are they're going to sell and then

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and then nose die even the second
half? And I think that's probably the

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way they're heading. So should we
say any deeper for performance and a CEE

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against expectation? Okay, so hang
on, So a C would mean sorry,

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I'm still struggling with the concept here. A C would mean that they

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have done exactly asn't expected. Is
that right? I think so? Right?

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Okay, well then how how can
they do exactly as expected yet get

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a D in performance? Surely they're
a CC because they were expected to be

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bad and they are bad. Well
they de Yeah, my expectation was,

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yeah, absolutely, I mean I
expect them five hundred night. I think

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as they are constructed right now,
they will probably finish about five hundred.

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I do worry though, that the
transfer deadline is going to be a trade

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deadline is going to be it's gonna
be an it after for them. So

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as they're constructed, I would probably
say a CC, but I can understand

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a DC. There is. Yeah, I'll go D plus C. I'll

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give them a little bit of credit
for that run differential, but most of

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that was that red hot first couple
of weeks that Rob witnessed. So okay,

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so we'll move on to the other
team that was red hot at the

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start of the season, Pittsburgh Pirates. Kind Of, as far as we

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are like, we can'bably say too
much difference. I think the Pirates weren't

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actually expected to be that much worse
than the clubs the season. Maybe a

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little bit worse. You give them
a little benefit into that regard, But

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I had a bit of bid seventies
win team. I think they're projected now

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to still be a mid seventies win
team, even though they won like fifteen

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of the first twenty games and they've
gone on being bad afterwards. We can

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we smash this one out quickly and
say almost exactly the same deep LUs C.

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And yes they've been entertaining to watch, but it's not been not really

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even much to actually talk about,
apart from it being a little bit fun

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occasionally. I mean the fall has
been even more precipitous. I mean it's

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been it's been insane. They were
absolutely flying high and looked fantastic, and

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then I mean we never believe it. No one actually believed it with the

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Pirates. So I'm not like overdisappointed
with them DP plus because you know,

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they're they're basically the same record as
the Cubs. But I had worse expectations

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and they are basically the same.
So for me, it's a D plus

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C plus rather than a D plus
C. I bull and then we'll talk

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about probably one of the teams that
might get closer, closer enough to the

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lowest rankings in expectations than there was
Cardinals. They are currently thirty eight and

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fifty two, which I think it's
phenomenal. I think by my calculations,

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they have the second highest decrease in
playoff percentage odds, So they've gone from

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having a sixty seven percent percent it's
a chance of making the playoffs to a

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six percent chance of making the playoffs. This is like I have them as

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E for performance and E against expectations, Darius and expectations. Christ, We're

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going, We're going, yeah easily. I think I think it's an f

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because it's the Cardinals, like,
and this is not just record, this

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is vibes. The vibes have been
terrible and similar as the season, Oli

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Marmal making an absolute mess of things. Adam Wayne, Right, oh yeah,

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I'm coming back for another year getting
absolutely destroyed. I love the guy,

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like, you know, just obviously
like such a charismatic, lovely guy.

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But I really wish he'd just retired
with the Adiam bootholes because this has

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been an absolute disaster. Yeah,
if the Cardinals are not in the playoff,

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Mikes, what are we doing here? Like you're almost like you're almost

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at d even if they like just
missed the playoffs, So for them to

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be like fIF fourteen games on the
five hundred, that's an F to me.

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They should have been winning this division
at an absolute canter. Like they've

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got the players there is yeah,
yeah, there was always questions over the

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pitching. Absolutely, there was always
a bit of a question there. But

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with this this life, I mean
they've got Goldie and Arnado. I mean

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that that that should be enough to
carry them to being middling, you know,

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absolute worst. But I mean this
has been a disaster. It's an

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ian an F for me because how
Arlie Marmon is still employed I don't know.

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Because they've taken a team which nothing
has changed other than the manager,

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and it's it's been a disaster and
the vibes, as Darius said, are

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disastrous, and every every problem they've
encountered has seemed to be made worse by

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marm Or rather than better. If
that guy makes the end of the season,

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I would be absolutely amazed at this
point. So it's it's an absolute

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F. Is as bad as it
goes? Or is it going to ge

218
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or you stick with I think that
was the lowest I went as well.

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So nothing said they're going to make
trades like Cardinals fans that are not going

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to know what's happened to them,
because when of the Cards ever had to

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sell off season, not since I
followed baseball. Yeah, okay, so

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that takes us through the NL Central, Darius, give us another division.

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Well, let's do the AL Central
and we'll build up from there. Okay,

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we'll talk about Okay, so we
can we can go to another team

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that is somehow barely leading a division. At the time of speaking, there's

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actually team in this division that has
a five hundred record. It is a

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five hundred record. It is the
Cleveland Guardians are sat there at forty five

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and forty five. I'll I think
I'll take this one. I didn't really

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have much expectations for them to be
beyond this. Actually, kind of going

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into the season, I didn't really
buy some of the the extra hype that

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happens towards the end of last season. I think there was a little bit

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of work, a little bit of
players are performing what we anticipated. So

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I really had the Guardians as like
an eighty two eighty three win team.

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So as they're kind of on pace
for that, there's not much you can

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They're really waiting a little bit off
what they're doing. It's just been there's

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been injuries, there's been Armored Rosario
playing absolutely terribly. There's been either any

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of the catching options being or like, it's all great to see Bonela come

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up and throw some dudes out at
a second or whatever. It's in stellar

239
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basis, but he can't hit at
all, So it's not particularly useful to

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have him and Milestraw and Armored Rossourio
all failing to actually do anything with the

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bat. So yeah, I've just
gone to see and see because I just

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think that's kind of what we anticipated. I was maybe a little bit higher

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on on Cleveland. I thought the
one thing they were missing last year was

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a little bit of power. And
then they tried to get some guys in

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who had a little bit of power, who have been disasters. And then

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and then you got some step backs
by from some guys like like Stephen Kuan,

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who's not not putting up the numbers
like he was even without the power.

248
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We didn't expect that. But he's
he's not. He's he was a

249
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big, average guy who's not anymore, you know. And Josh Bell he's

250
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been I mean, he's not been
great as he's he's he was there for

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the power. He's not done that. You know, Nino has been a

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disaster. So I would say that, if anything, a little bit worse

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than I expected. I wasn't expecting
much to start with. I was probably

254
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expecting roughly a C plus and I'm
probably a bad a D. I think

255
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ce performance the expectations for me,
I thought, I think we did have

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them winning the division in our predictions, not with a great win total,

257
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but above five hundred. And yeah, the offense, just outside of Ramires,

258
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it's been so disappointing. You know, Josh now has been good,

259
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but yeah, this just like the
bottom half is a total dead spot.

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You cannot carry this many guys who
just do absolutely nothing with the bat.

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So yeah, it's um, it's
a D for me on the on the

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expectations and the fact that they're still
in it. It's got not very much

263
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to do with them, I don't
think. I mean, maybe Cleveland's front

264
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office just looked at the division.
I thought, yeah, we haven't got

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to do much year, have we. Guys? They sturn not to have

266
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been writer so far. But yep, it's not impressive. Oh so yeah,

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let's go CD. Then and leave
the response back to that up to

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our audience the next team. But
as the Twins, they do have half

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game back, but they are actually
predicted to win the division by most sources.

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Darius, what do we think here? I think kind of, I'm

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fairly similar to what we said before. It's pretty much probably like a sea

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and a d If we've gone the
same way with the Guardians, I think

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we have to go in the same
way with the Twins. Yeah, yeah,

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I think so. I mean the
thing about the Twins is, like

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you said, oh, they need
some pitching. Like the pitching suck last

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00:19:56.200 --> 00:19:59.599
year. There was no depths,
it fell apart. They've done a great

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00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:02.279
job, fantastic job. I mean, I don't need to talk about Joe

278
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:06.039
Ryan again, but you know,
Pablo Lopez has been great. You know,

279
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:08.960
they've really like overhauled that that pitching
staff and it looks really good and

280
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.240
just collapsed. Absolutely sucks. In
the context of the Ale Central, it

281
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doesn't suck that much, but if
you look at the rest of the Ale,

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it definitely does. As a Giants
fanom like, you know, not

283
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that disappointed we didn't get Korea now
because it hasn't gone well. Buxton is

284
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supposed to just be hitting and now
it's like just kind of all right,

285
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it's yeah, it's not good.
So seeing D, I think the division

286
00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:37.079
is absolutely wide open there for the
taking. I think they've got a better

287
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team than the Guardians, but whether
they can get it together to actually,

288
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you know, realize the potential over
the second half, I half my dance.

289
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Yeah, just the Twins haven't done
anything wrong. Like if you if

290
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you look at what the front office
did, they went out, they got

291
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like you know, they got Korea, Like okay, yeah, there's an

292
00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.880
injury question that doesn't seem to be
what's filled him. Yeah, they made

293
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the upgrades of the pitching. Yeah, they've done it. Okay, They've

294
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.799
not done anything that shouldn't have them
in first place in this division. But

295
00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:12.759
it's for whatever reason. I think
Rock Obowdeli's another guy who's going to be

296
00:21:14.039 --> 00:21:15.720
questioning whether or not his job is
safe come the end of the year.

297
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As you could basically say about everybody
in this division. Um, yeah,

298
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I mean C and D. The
Twins should be doing better. They just

299
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:30.200
should be. There's no reason for
this. Yeah, I think it would

300
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take like something absolutely catastrophic to make
the Guardians sack Francona. To be honest,

301
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that was the only thing I was
going to say. What t tooken

302
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still stand. I think that's what
would get him out of the job if

303
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if his health preventsive from doing so. I don't think they would ever say,

304
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:48.839
yeah, he's too much credit.
This would have to become like a

305
00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.880
sixty win team for a couple of
seasons I think before they would even think

306
00:21:52.920 --> 00:21:56.519
about doing it. Okay, so
that's now we've talked about the two relatively

307
00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:03.000
optimistic teams within the Al Central.
Let's go into the devils of not actually

308
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that optimistic, or maybe a little
bit more than we thought. The Tigers

309
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are next at thirty nine and fifty
obviously kind of were projected to be around

310
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that sort of territory. I think
at the start of the season. It

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00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:21.440
is a very healthy pigalty way which
the Tigers do things. If you follow

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our good friend jed On on Twitter, there are times where they are absolutely

313
00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:32.440
awful and it says some particularly polite
things about the individuals who play for the

314
00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:37.319
twit or Traders, and then they
go through combined no hitters. So I

315
00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:42.039
have them at a D for performance, but a see gets expectation because yeah,

316
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:48.119
this is just what we anticipated.
It's better than I thought. I

317
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:55.279
was unfortunate enough to see to stand
there and watch the Tigers do batting practice

318
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last year in twenty twenty one,
and even in batting practice, I think

319
00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:03.039
they managed to get out of about
fifty balls, two of them went out.

320
00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:08.720
I mean, there's a complete power
outage there just just it's just nothing.

321
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.279
You know, it was it was. It was a disaster. And

322
00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:15.240
maybe they got a little bit of
that back this year. But you know,

323
00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:19.680
I was expecting worse. They're doing
fine. I think. I think

324
00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:25.359
the thing about the Tigers is,
if you say twenty nineteen, how are

325
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:30.640
they doing against expectations? This is
an f But given how badly this rebuilder

326
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.759
has gone over the last couple of
years, the supposedly new resurgent Tigers with

327
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:40.240
the you know, their their forward
thinking manager and they're spending and all their

328
00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:44.200
youth, it's been a disaster.
So but compared to last year, yeah,

329
00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:45.559
absolutely, I think I'm about the
same. It's a it's a dep

330
00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:52.880
performance, but roughly roughly about where
I expected it. I'm going to be

331
00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:56.480
a bit. I think they're like
at least like a B minus and expectations.

332
00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:00.640
I agree with the DN performance,
but I thought they would be last

333
00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:03.039
in this division, to be honest, and like I go, don't know

334
00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:06.920
that we should give them credit for
the Royals and the White Sogs being dreadful.

335
00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:11.880
But they've they've been okay. They've
had some moments like sort of in

336
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:15.720
spite of some of the decisions they've
made. I mean, like when I

337
00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:18.759
look up and the Tigers are like
batting buyers fourth again, it's like the

338
00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:22.359
dude's got a five ninety Ops,
what are you doing here? Guys like

339
00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:26.720
understand sunk cost like that kind of
thing. I understand why it drives jead

340
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:30.680
nuts because they finally Dfad Scope,
who hasn't hit for god knows how long.

341
00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:34.920
But if you know, e Rod's
looking looking pretty good, like that

342
00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:38.160
deal might work out pretty well for
them. Roddy Green has has turned up,

343
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.599
talkson actually has been hitting lately,
like the last month. Talcuson looks

344
00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.359
like the guy that people thought he
might be. And yeah, you know

345
00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:48.920
it's I wasn't expecting anyone, but
I thought they'd be yeah, like mid

346
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.039
sixties win teams. So if they
come out here and win seventy five then

347
00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:55.880
I think they've they've done a right
given what Scott Harris had to work with

348
00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:59.559
at the start of the year,
which was just a big fucking mess to

349
00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.519
be honest. Yeah, I think
there are seven. Yeah, I think

350
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:08.640
protected seventy one. There are at
a seventy one record and still protected at

351
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:14.039
seventy one. So I think we
go for fan grabs. I think we

352
00:25:14.039 --> 00:25:17.279
were more negative. I think I
think it's been a wash. I'll give

353
00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:21.920
him a C plus against expectations.
Can't quite get into into that B territory.

354
00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:25.680
Um. But as you mentioned,
next team, I think we should

355
00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:30.799
discuss all of the Chicago White Sox. Um. Yeah, I've gone e

356
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:37.599
and E here for performance and expectations. Where has it all gone wrong,

357
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:42.440
Darius? Because they have probably one
of the best center fielders in baseball,

358
00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:47.960
They have a reasonable bullpin. How
can you not have any of the other

359
00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:52.200
players? I think I think that's
it because like everything else that you didn't

360
00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:57.799
mention, has gone wrong, like
pretty much everything else. Like I guess

361
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:03.279
you know Andrew Benning and he has
been average ish, Like I still don't

362
00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:07.440
understand what that deal was. Jake
Burger has hit, but yeah, it's

363
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:11.759
it's a total mess the rest of
the roster. The pitching has been bad.

364
00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:15.599
Tim Anderson, I mean I hope
to disappointment of the year. I

365
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:21.160
mean that's awful. Tim Madison doesn't
look like a major league baseball player right

366
00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:26.319
now. Like it's been absolutely dreadful. Um, So yeah, that's that's

367
00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:32.839
distressing. And yeah, I god
knows how bad it would be without Rebel

368
00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:37.400
carrying this team because there's just nothing
else here like that. The depth isn't

369
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:41.799
there in the rotation. Um,
you know, Ceasar's regressed. I thought

370
00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:44.720
Sez would regress, and he has. Lancelin has been getting lit up.

371
00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.559
It's it's rough out there, and
there isn't a lot of depth on this

372
00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:51.359
team. Like you looked at the
system prior to the year and you thought,

373
00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:52.279
well, you know, where is
it coming from. If a picture

374
00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:57.240
gets hurt, it's just not there. And we said what they're doing at

375
00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:02.480
second base, like let's rerun the
Elvis Andrew's miracle. Yeah that's going to

376
00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:07.000
bat as well as you might have
thought. So yeah, I'm not shocked

377
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:10.920
that it's gone wrong. I'm kind
of surprised that it's gone this wrong.

378
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:14.039
But you could sort of see,
Yeah, you guys get hurt that this

379
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:15.799
isn't going to work out very well, and guess what here we are?

380
00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:25.039
Yes, I think the simple way
of putting it is that the White Sox

381
00:27:25.079 --> 00:27:30.119
have four point six more from their
hitting players so far this season. Lewis

382
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:36.200
Robert accounts for three point seven hitting
war the rest of the team combined is

383
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:41.440
at point nine. So they've basically
had replacement level players from all of the

384
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:47.880
other hitting across the board this season, which is just unbelievable, especially obviously

385
00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:52.559
you say like him, Anderson Is
has a whole that I just looked at

386
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:56.839
his slashlight and that's absolutely disgusting.
Two twenty three, two fifty nine,

387
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:03.599
two sixty three, and I still
Fantasy League, you don't. You don't

388
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:11.279
see a zero point four is regular
imagining players very I would love to know

389
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:15.880
actually what the last like sort of
you know, five hundred plus plight appearance

390
00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:21.000
zero point before I say, was
from a regular because that can't happen very

391
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:25.400
often. I'm looking up keep talking, So do they? I think we

392
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:29.519
can have a happy with saying it's
e for what's happened so far this season?

393
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:33.039
Are they? Do they fall into
that f category for expectations or were

394
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:36.240
they just kind of bad enough that
we thought this was going to happen.

395
00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:41.319
So it's probably in the E E
minus or an F plus. Like I

396
00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:48.640
expected. The benchlanmark here is the
Cardinals, and I had a little bit

397
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:51.880
more expectation of the Cardinals and needed
the white socks that it didn't work last

398
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:53.720
year. So I'm a half grade
down. So it's an E minus or

399
00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:56.720
an F plus for me one or
the other. I think, in going

400
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:02.119
by grading systems, an F plus
really exists because F is kind of just

401
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:08.920
like stail. So I think then
we'll squitch them into the E minus territory

402
00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:15.559
E minus and then somehow there's been
a team that's been even worse than them

403
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:22.400
this season, and I think this
is potentially the luckiest team in all of

404
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:26.440
baseball. And the reason why they're
the luckiest team in all of baseball is

405
00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:32.839
everybody's been talking about another really bad
team and has not actually looked and seen

406
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:37.359
how bad the Kansas City Royals are. They are. Also, they are

407
00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:42.960
projected well. Their current rate would
have them about forty six wins for the

408
00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:48.920
season. They're projected from like fifty
five, so they're already projected to be

409
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:52.839
an above dree hundred lost team,
which is kind of ridiculous because nothing really

410
00:29:52.839 --> 00:30:02.400
ever gets predicted that bad. So
I just don't think there's anything more to

411
00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:06.279
say than this is an F and
an F like the best player that's on

412
00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:07.759
that team. Yes, Bob,
we were junior. I think has done

413
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:12.079
what we would love to have seen. Michael Garcia has had a good season

414
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:18.079
as the moments to say, I
don't say. Arroldis Chapman has had a

415
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:21.039
good season with the rules, but
he's not going to be there from the

416
00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:23.960
end of this month. He is
like prade bait number one. I think

417
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:27.880
on on out there to go with
that. So he already got traded to

418
00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:32.200
the Rangers. Oh you did,
Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah.

419
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:36.920
So like anything that's good on this
team is kind of going all of those

420
00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:41.279
young pictures that we thought if we
take a talk the same way as we

421
00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:42.960
talked about the two Tigers, these
pictures that were going to be amazing,

422
00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:48.480
Singer, Boobage, all of that
lot. Like what I think Singer has

423
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:52.680
a close to six r A.
It's I think I think across the board,

424
00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:56.519
I think the RARA has been about
five five and a half. But

425
00:30:56.440 --> 00:31:00.000
and the city so far this year. It's it's not been good. Um,

426
00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:04.359
and they've destroyed the trade value of
everyone. Like, worst case scenario

427
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:07.559
is you could trade away some of
these pictures that promised. But I mean,

428
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:11.680
who are you picking up out of
this lot? I mean the luckiest

429
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:15.440
thing that's happened to them this season
is that Ryan Yarborough got his face broken

430
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.640
so they couldn't throw any more balls. I mean, it's been disaster.

431
00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.799
I mean their best picture is a
reliever who's no longer on the team.

432
00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:26.640
I mean, and that's by War
so far this season. That's insane.

433
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:32.279
Uh yeah, what's what is going
on here? It was they were taking

434
00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:34.440
the step forward, they were starting
to make that move again, and it's

435
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:40.000
gone the other way. It's what's
worse than a f I mean, this

436
00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:44.359
is a disaster because I thought they
might be doing a little bit better,

437
00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:47.000
they may have started to make a
move forward. It's it's a disaster.

438
00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:55.400
Anything to have daris beyond disaster.
I think, Um, just competing with

439
00:31:55.440 --> 00:31:57.759
the A's for the worst record is
the most damning indictment of a team I

440
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:01.440
think you could ever make. I
didn't get the singer. I didn't get

441
00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:04.720
the singer. Thing like people seem
to believe in him this obvious season.

442
00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:07.319
I was like, what you,
I don't see it like he had a

443
00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:09.680
lucky season last year. I didn't
think it would be this bad. But

444
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:13.599
I think we had a conversation a
few months ago about how, yeah,

445
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:16.480
the Royals had all these pitching prospects
and where have they gone? Like they've

446
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:22.279
literally not got one good star out
of them this year. It's mad So

447
00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:28.960
nothing else to add. It's it's
a total disaster. Update last hitter to

448
00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:32.960
have a zero point four or lower
ISO over a five hundred plate appearance season

449
00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:38.039
there were two in two thousand and
ten. Cesar Is tourists and Elvis Andrews

450
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:47.079
still a two win player. Believe
Yeah, Okay, it's that gives us

451
00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:52.839
another division complete, and I think
we can now kind of get into low

452
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:58.640
maybe a happier mentality about what some
of these divisions can be. So I'm

453
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:04.559
going to take it to the NL
West. We're going to talk about rout.

454
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:10.759
Yes, So simplistically, the Dodgers
are still in charge of the NL

455
00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:14.960
West, which is not something that
I think we all thought going into the

456
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:20.640
season, but wasn't beyond the realms
of possibility. They are like projected to

457
00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:24.559
be a ninety three win team.
Now, I think we probably mosteen people

458
00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:29.079
had them maybe in the high eighties
or alone nineties for this season, given

459
00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:32.079
a few of the players that they
lost, and obviously with the injury to

460
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:35.920
Looks before the start of the season, I think most people sought them in

461
00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:39.160
that territory. So I think there's
still are of that. Is he just

462
00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:43.559
they've just been boring this season,
Like the Dodgers have just been so good

463
00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:47.240
for the last ten years that they've
just been kind of just outshone by other

464
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:51.119
things going on around them. I
have them as basically is in a performance

465
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:54.720
and be against expectation because it's just
they kind of bumbled along and as somehow

466
00:33:54.759 --> 00:34:04.319
still predicted to win nineteen wins.
Garis I think B plus performance. I

467
00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:08.280
think it was saw the Dodgers falling
off a bit this year. But yeah,

468
00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:14.880
I guess it feels kind of like
a see in that context, I

469
00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:20.039
suppose I don't think people were expecting
them to be the juggernaut Dodges and actually

470
00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:22.400
in that context like, yeah,
we fit the All Star break and they

471
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:25.119
are back in first place. And
to be honest, like I know the

472
00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:29.360
Diamondbacks are like exciting and a lot
of good stories have happened, but if

473
00:34:29.400 --> 00:34:30.920
you look at a lot of the
underlying stuff, I think they're going to

474
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:34.559
be pretty lucky to still be here
at the end of the season. Like

475
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:37.440
the Dodges are actually a much better
team than they are, And you know,

476
00:34:37.519 --> 00:34:42.199
I hope the Dodges don't win fomision
again because we've had enough of that

477
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:45.599
over the last few years. But
you look at some of the people's like

478
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:49.440
outside of Carol and Gallen, like, I think the diamond Backs roster is

479
00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:52.599
pretty fragile, and I don't have
that concerned about the Dodges because you just

480
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:57.239
know they're going to find something.
I mean. Also, the other thing

481
00:34:57.320 --> 00:35:00.239
is like Clayton kersh Or is leading
the league in the ARI again, which

482
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:04.880
is pretty on the il with shoulder, isn't he Yeah, because it's casual.

483
00:35:05.079 --> 00:35:08.039
But yeah, at some point the
Dodges are not, Hey, Clayton,

484
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:10.559
can you throw one hundred fifty innings
for us? Like, at some

485
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:13.840
point in the next couple of years, that's not going to be an option

486
00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:15.559
for them anymore. So I'll be
interesting to see where they end up then.

487
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:21.079
But yeah, they've figured out again. You know, Freeman's elite bets

488
00:35:21.159 --> 00:35:23.719
is elite. They're always going to
be all right as long as those guys

489
00:35:23.719 --> 00:35:27.760
are around. I think, yeah, I still have them as probably the

490
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:32.239
third best team in baseball, Like, which is like this is a bad

491
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:36.480
and this is a bad Dodger season, right, yeah, and you know

492
00:35:36.519 --> 00:35:38.800
what, what team isn't injured at
this point. But I would say the

493
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:43.519
Dodgers have probably handing a little bit
worse, especially when it comes to their

494
00:35:43.559 --> 00:35:46.239
pitching. We knew their pitching was
going to be a bit shaky, and

495
00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:50.519
then they've had some bad luck with
it as well. If they just get

496
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:53.159
back to neutral luck over the second
half, I think they're gonna They're gonna

497
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:57.679
win it at a canter um.
So I'm a B plus C. I

498
00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:01.760
agree with Darius on the rankings.
I'd have given them a little bit more

499
00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:06.599
for against expectations because they've kind of
matched it up. But I'm happy to

500
00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:10.239
sit with what you boys just think. Also, it's predictable. But like

501
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.159
Jason Hayward is pretty good again.
I know everybody said, oh Jason,

502
00:36:15.199 --> 00:36:17.079
no, it was gonna go to
the Dodges and they're gonna fix him,

503
00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:22.920
And yeah, actually they have,
so yeah, but it's also saying something

504
00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:27.480
about them needing to even throw him
out there, like, yeah, there

505
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:30.280
is in the game time for him
to play there. This isn't the juggernaut

506
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:31.840
the Dodgers team that we had,
but as we've meant to them a little

507
00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:38.320
bit already, there's at the Diamondbacks. They sat tie on games back,

508
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:43.639
They've virtually won one more and lost
one more to a slightly little worse with

509
00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:49.840
percentage than the Dodgers. But this
is this is a great season. I

510
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:52.400
think I've pretty much got Obviously,
if if we said B plus for the

511
00:36:52.440 --> 00:36:53.599
Dodgers, who kind of prey before, it's going to say be plus for

512
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:58.840
the diamond Backs and well on performance, but this has got to be close

513
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:05.119
to an A even an A plus
against expectations. I'm going to be saying

514
00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:07.159
that I definitely saw them to be. I thought they were a five hundred

515
00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:12.519
team with a slight chance at sneaking
into that playoffs if everything went well.

516
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:15.079
Well, everything is going well right
now, it's how long everything goes well

517
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:23.519
four So rob Yeah, I'm personally
I'm really enjoying watching the Longoria renaissance that's

518
00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:29.440
been that's been lovely to watch.
UM. I think they are a team

519
00:37:29.559 --> 00:37:35.199
who if you look at the relative
weakness of the rest of the National League,

520
00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:40.039
UM, they're They're a fair showing
at this point for UM for a

521
00:37:40.119 --> 00:37:45.880
wild card unless unless they they hit
those injuries and they are relying heavily on

522
00:37:45.960 --> 00:37:50.679
a couple of superstars, and I
think if they lose a little bit of

523
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:54.039
that it could get ugly quick.
But as they're going right now, they're

524
00:37:54.039 --> 00:37:59.400
doing they're doing a bloody good job. And they need an eye over the

525
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:01.880
shoulder at the NL East. But
even that's not doing what it's supposed to

526
00:38:01.880 --> 00:38:04.800
be doing. Will come on for
that in a minute. The rest of

527
00:38:04.840 --> 00:38:07.519
the vision is not doing what it's
supposed to be doing, and they should.

528
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:14.519
They should from where they are at
least be scrapping for the world card

529
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:16.880
at the end of the day.
And is that something we thought they'd be

530
00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:21.920
doing? Maybe an outside they put
themselves in a position whereby we now expect

531
00:38:22.039 --> 00:38:24.880
him to at least be in the
conversations. So yeah, definitely definitely better

532
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.760
B plus two an A for me
on the expectations performance wise, Yeah,

533
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:37.320
it's a B B minus maybe a
B. It's a B Darius anythings to

534
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:39.039
add, so we need to.
I think they're going to be a team

535
00:38:39.079 --> 00:38:42.960
that's definitely going to go out there
in the trade market for pictures, aren't

536
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:50.679
they, Because after Gallen and Kelly, I think it's not looked particularly exhilarating

537
00:38:50.719 --> 00:38:53.320
elsewhere. Now. I've been very
impressed with Scott McGough in the Bullpenny had

538
00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:55.880
to go blow ups early, it
made his line look bad, but he's

539
00:38:55.880 --> 00:39:00.719
actually been very very good. Other
than that, Yeah, I think they

540
00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:02.119
need bullpen help. I think they
need back of the rotation help. I

541
00:39:02.199 --> 00:39:06.559
know people are excited about Brandon part
and not just because they get to say

542
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:09.440
his name, but it has not
worked. And I think if the Diving

543
00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:13.719
Backs are going to go into a
playoff series and saying we want three starters,

544
00:39:13.800 --> 00:39:16.039
we can count who's the third guy, they don't have the third guy,

545
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:19.400
I don't think, so I think
they need to go and find that

546
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:21.760
third guy. And I think they
need to go and find another guy that

547
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:24.679
they can count one on the back
of the bullpen. So as for the

548
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:30.239
ratings, yeah, I think I
think in a works for me. Okay,

549
00:39:30.280 --> 00:39:36.800
okay, So we're next to move
on to your san Francisco Giants.

550
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:42.039
Darius, I give my two cents. First, I think I kind of

551
00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:45.360
still had them falling off a little
bit. I thought, l everything that

552
00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:46.920
happened in the off season, where
they were and everything, I thought they

553
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:52.239
were going to be five hundred or
slightly below. So I think where they're

554
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:55.719
at, they're on a trajectorally for
eighty eight wins, which I think is

555
00:39:55.800 --> 00:40:00.480
solid. Shouldn't get them play season, which is definitely expect above expect patients.

556
00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:06.079
So I had them at B and
B the performance and expectations, Darius,

557
00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:12.599
What's what's what's caused this little renaissance
of the of the San Francisco Giants.

558
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:15.760
I mean, it's it's very Giants
again, isn't it. Webb has

559
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:22.199
been excellent. Um, They've surprisingly
like kept Cobb and disclafany healthy, which

560
00:40:22.320 --> 00:40:25.280
is not a thing that's happened a
great deal over the last few years.

561
00:40:25.320 --> 00:40:30.079
But they've both basically made more or
less every return in the rotation. M

562
00:40:30.360 --> 00:40:32.960
Patrick Bailey has helped a lot since
he has come up. He looks great.

563
00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:37.840
Um. And then it's like,
you know, the guys who like

564
00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:44.440
didn't really work out anywhere else.
Lamont Wade is back and getting on base

565
00:40:44.519 --> 00:40:49.480
at like near bonds and rates.
JD. Davis has suddenly figured it out,

566
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:55.199
and the piro restrata like probably the
best player on the offense. I

567
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:59.360
think a lot of people have fought
last year was a fluke and kind of

568
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:02.599
looks like it's not. It's a
great defender and you know he's hitting enough

569
00:41:02.679 --> 00:41:07.039
that you can definitely run him out
there every day. So yeah, it's

570
00:41:07.199 --> 00:41:12.039
it's been another real team effort.
There isn't a superstar like website closest thing

571
00:41:12.079 --> 00:41:14.960
we've got, I guess. But
outside of that is just you know,

572
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:20.360
a bunch of good team construction,
I think, and hats off to Zaidie,

573
00:41:20.400 --> 00:41:23.559
I guess for defying our expectations once
again. It's just more again once

574
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:28.239
it's been not just not having bad
players on the team, because I think

575
00:41:28.360 --> 00:41:31.360
obviously like Schmidt and Wisely have had
a bit of time, but combined not

576
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:35.119
too much. Even Hanniger hasn't been
like the greatest. But I think it's

577
00:41:35.519 --> 00:41:42.599
came out about like replacement. So
you just haven't had anybody been or which

578
00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:44.920
has been, and I had to
kind of like make that decision of you

579
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:47.280
you ride the poor person for longer. The people who have been bad have

580
00:41:47.400 --> 00:41:52.840
been easy to cut. Yeah,
you know they've got they've got the flexibility.

581
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:57.039
He likes that. And you know, Schmidt has has looked good defensively.

582
00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.840
I don't know that or the metric
degree, but when you're watching player

583
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:02.360
like this guy knows how to pick
it. So, yeah, there's work

584
00:42:02.440 --> 00:42:05.960
to be done with the batter.
But I think that is one of the

585
00:42:06.039 --> 00:42:09.000
strengths of this team that they're not
like invested. They're not saying, hey,

586
00:42:09.159 --> 00:42:12.519
have you buyers go out there and
hit four for us every day.

587
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:15.840
If somebody's not getting it done,
they just make a change. They've got

588
00:42:15.880 --> 00:42:17.920
the flexibility to do that. They
put guys in the right situations instead of

589
00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:22.639
just rolling them out there regardless.
So I think that that is a bonus

590
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:27.000
of this Jigs team and sort of
keeps that flaw relatively high. And in

591
00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:30.960
combination with the Padres not doing what
they were supposed to and the Dodgers not

592
00:42:30.079 --> 00:42:34.000
being as strong as as they used
to be, I think it's you know,

593
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:37.280
helped them to get get here,
but it's it's still I think there's

594
00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:42.320
a bit of precariousness in the way
this division is lining up that you know

595
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:46.880
that they might still not make the
playoffs. Yeah, BB, any any

596
00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:52.400
concerns with that? That's what I
had rights a little bit anonymous. Yes,

597
00:42:52.639 --> 00:43:00.599
let's talk about those part ters um
I have D and E. I

598
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:07.679
didn't quite give them an f on
their season performed against THEE against expectations so

599
00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:13.760
far, because they still actually have
like a thirty percent chance of making the

600
00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:19.199
postseason, at least according to pangraphs. This is a weird one because I

601
00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:22.960
look at that team and I go
okay, Like Tatis has been amazing since

602
00:43:22.039 --> 00:43:27.159
has come back, Soto has gone
back to being Soto, Kim's having amazing

603
00:43:27.199 --> 00:43:31.400
defensive season. Bogots and Manchado have
both been reasonably good. Not Stella,

604
00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:37.360
but like you thought, those five
players between them have picked up clost to

605
00:43:37.480 --> 00:43:40.480
fifteen war between the between the five
of them. Great, that's fantastic.

606
00:43:40.639 --> 00:43:46.480
The season's going to have gone okay, but it hasn't like it's been an

607
00:43:46.519 --> 00:43:53.719
absolute war. Doesn't paint the right
picture for the partaries this year. Seniel

608
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:58.079
Pringle in our chat has been constantly
telling us that they don't do it with

609
00:43:58.199 --> 00:44:05.280
runners in scoring position, like they
just absolutely awful clutch Darius or robbed.

610
00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:07.320
I actually want to take this first. What has been going wrong with the

611
00:44:07.400 --> 00:44:13.199
Padres so far? I think if
I had the answer, I'd be a

612
00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:16.000
very rich man, because there's there's
no real rhyme nor reason as to why

613
00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:21.079
this team has done quite as bad
as it has. I mean, our

614
00:44:21.159 --> 00:44:23.199
rooting at a door and Gary Santra
is getting too many app bats. Yes,

615
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:27.800
you could say so I'm compared to
what they've got, but they've got

616
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:31.519
enough there that they really should be
doing an awful lot better than they are.

617
00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:36.239
Like, no one can, no
one preseason could look at this and

618
00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:37.360
say go, oh, there's a
there's a real issue with the way they

619
00:44:37.400 --> 00:44:42.079
constructed this team. You know,
it's just not that's just not the way

620
00:44:42.119 --> 00:44:44.920
it is, you know. And
they've they've got good pitching performances. They've

621
00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:46.920
pulled something out the bag with Michael
Whacker which nobody really saw coming. You

622
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:53.519
know, Blake Snell's doing as advertised. There's maybe slightly under the weather performances

623
00:44:53.519 --> 00:44:55.320
from you, Darvish, but a
little bit more. But like, no

624
00:44:55.480 --> 00:45:00.199
worse than the other team. They've
not been injured worse than any other team.

625
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:05.199
They've They've not got a real explanation
as to why it's quite so bad.

626
00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:09.360
So for me, it's still a
roll of the dice, and I

627
00:45:10.039 --> 00:45:14.840
expect them to go on an absolute
tear at some point in the second half

628
00:45:15.599 --> 00:45:19.199
and be an awful lot better,
because I think they are. They are.

629
00:45:19.400 --> 00:45:22.480
Just it's sequencing, it's bad luck, whatever you want to say.

630
00:45:22.719 --> 00:45:25.079
Maybe it's makeup, maybe it's the
clubhouse effect. I don't know, but

631
00:45:25.519 --> 00:45:30.840
there's no real rhyme of reason as
to why this team is quite as disappointing

632
00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:37.360
as it has been. There's that
four games under five hundred, but still,

633
00:45:37.639 --> 00:45:40.760
how are the other divisions are going
have a basically a one in three

634
00:45:40.840 --> 00:45:45.800
chance of gett into the playoffs?
According to fangraffs. You're going to take

635
00:45:45.840 --> 00:45:47.920
that bet. I'm going to take
that bet. Yeah. I think I

636
00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:52.400
think two things are true. One
that the padres a disappointed relative to what

637
00:45:52.519 --> 00:45:54.199
we thought there might be, which
is, you know, they were finally

638
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:58.639
going to the Dodgers off the division. At the same time, they're not

639
00:45:58.719 --> 00:46:01.480
this bad, They're not a sub
five hundred team. It is going to

640
00:46:01.559 --> 00:46:07.079
get better. Then there are definitely
holes. You know, they traded away

641
00:46:07.119 --> 00:46:09.039
a lot of that prospect talent,
and now it would be kind of nice

642
00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:12.199
to have a couple of those kind
respects and be like, oh, yeah,

643
00:46:12.199 --> 00:46:15.400
we need some reinforcements here because outside
of the superstars, Yeah, maybe

644
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:19.800
it's not working out. You know, Gary Sanchez is playing so much because

645
00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:23.079
Austin Nola has sucked real bad and
he can't throw, which is a problem

646
00:46:23.159 --> 00:46:29.480
with the new base or animals.
But yeah, it's it's it's a better

647
00:46:29.519 --> 00:46:30.920
scene than this. Whether they met
the playoffs or not, I think that's

648
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:36.400
going to be touch or touch and
go. But Tatis has been an absolutely

649
00:46:36.440 --> 00:46:38.079
outstanding in right field, Like it
looks like he's playing in that position in

650
00:46:38.119 --> 00:46:43.559
his whole life instead of for four
months. So when you've got a guy

651
00:46:43.599 --> 00:46:46.639
like that on your team, I
think anything can happen. And I think

652
00:46:46.719 --> 00:46:50.519
I think I'll be writ in the
mix at least for that World CUD spot

653
00:46:50.599 --> 00:46:53.320
at the end of the season.
All so glad I've got a C minus

654
00:46:53.480 --> 00:46:58.519
for their performance there far and in
e against expectations, I think that was

655
00:46:58.639 --> 00:47:05.159
dearly. But yeah, okay,
So we then move on to the Colorado

656
00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:07.840
Rockies. I think another team that
are kind of probably glad that two AL

657
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:13.280
Central teams are or two AL teams
doing pretty pit Paul. They're plodding along

658
00:47:13.360 --> 00:47:19.039
nicely. Are probably gonna maybe scoot
a sixty one since sixty one win season,

659
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:22.920
just just avoid that hundred lost season. But they're bad, but they're

660
00:47:22.960 --> 00:47:28.039
kind of just the bad that we
anticipated. Like it's I think they are

661
00:47:28.119 --> 00:47:32.920
still slightly worse than we anticipated.
Like I have them as like Ian and

662
00:47:34.119 --> 00:47:37.960
like a d just because I thought
I did think they were going to be

663
00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:39.159
this bad, just because I didn't
think there was going to be as many

664
00:47:39.199 --> 00:47:44.280
like Juggernauts in the NL this year, so I didn't think that they were

665
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:47.360
going to get their ass handed to
them by like the Dodgers and the Giants

666
00:47:47.400 --> 00:47:53.360
or the Padres as much. So, Yes, Daddius, the Colorado Rockies

667
00:47:53.400 --> 00:48:00.280
the problem having the All Star MVP, who is has a pretty poor slash

668
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:06.920
line anyway. Yeah, props to
Realist as having the season of his life

669
00:48:06.960 --> 00:48:09.599
at thirty, which is not a
particularly good season. I mean, you

670
00:48:09.679 --> 00:48:13.800
know, we can talk about park
adjusted stats and whether they're fair or not.

671
00:48:13.960 --> 00:48:17.960
Currently the Rockies do have negative war
offensively, maybe that's a little bit

672
00:48:19.079 --> 00:48:23.719
unfair, but outside of Ryan McMahon, this is really a very bad line

673
00:48:23.800 --> 00:48:29.239
up and there's nothing much speaking from
the pitching side either, So yeah,

674
00:48:29.480 --> 00:48:32.000
I don't know. I'm not surprised. I didn't believe in as advertised.

675
00:48:32.639 --> 00:48:36.800
I believe Ben actually said to us
this team is losing a hundred games when

676
00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:40.800
we did the prediction pond. So
no arguments here. But yeah, there's

677
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:45.639
there's no decent pitching. I think
they're two best pitchers are probably relievers,

678
00:48:47.039 --> 00:48:52.440
and then it's Kyle Friedland and I
don't know, like it's terrible, But

679
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:55.119
did I think it was going to
be terrible? Yeah, So performance is

680
00:48:57.039 --> 00:49:01.840
I think it's an F and expectations
of the sea I was an easy but

681
00:49:02.079 --> 00:49:06.519
yeah, we're certainly heading to that
duration. Yeah, I mean, I

682
00:49:06.559 --> 00:49:09.000
suppose it depends. Do we need
to differentiate between the Rockies and then the

683
00:49:09.119 --> 00:49:14.559
Royals and the A's. I think
I think I think the Rockies don't quite

684
00:49:14.599 --> 00:49:17.440
deserve to get put down in the
same territory as those do. As much

685
00:49:17.519 --> 00:49:22.360
as they are constantly terrible, and
there's much of the terrible, and they

686
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:25.199
have also constantly shown that they don't
actually seemly want to win baseball games by

687
00:49:25.239 --> 00:49:30.280
how they run there office. They
still occasionally do a couple of things that

688
00:49:30.440 --> 00:49:32.119
make you go, oh, okay, maybe they just all want to be

689
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:36.159
happy. Yeah, they have the
you know, there's some decent like I

690
00:49:36.199 --> 00:49:39.519
think there is some like decent scouting
and like some player they do get prospects

691
00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:42.719
coming through and you're like, oh, this guy could be something. But

692
00:49:43.320 --> 00:49:45.320
they seem to have no recognition of
where they are. That's something that worries

693
00:49:45.400 --> 00:49:51.199
me. Yeah. Yeah, the
top level of management has no idea how

694
00:49:51.480 --> 00:49:57.079
bad the baseball team is. Okay, let's move across to the Ale West

695
00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:04.519
then, which is currently sat atop
by I think some people might have predicted

696
00:50:04.599 --> 00:50:07.320
this, but you would have been
a very bold prediction to go and tell

697
00:50:07.400 --> 00:50:12.400
me that at the All Star Break
that Texas Rangers were leading this division.

698
00:50:12.599 --> 00:50:16.960
But they are. They are also
now actually projected to finish ahead of the

699
00:50:17.039 --> 00:50:22.239
Astros by Fangraphs only by point to
two wars. It's basically saying eighty seven

700
00:50:22.320 --> 00:50:28.599
point eight and eighty seven point six
wins a piece. But yes, there's

701
00:50:28.639 --> 00:50:34.679
Texas Rangers. I have them as
an a and mainly because I was one

702
00:50:34.679 --> 00:50:37.519
of the people who was pretty high
on the expectations for the Rangers. I

703
00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:44.840
thought they were gonna do it by
having a utterly stellar and phenomenal pitching lineup

704
00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:49.559
and their batting lineup was going to
scrape through. And I think I've been

705
00:50:49.599 --> 00:50:53.360
proved about as wrong as possible that
it's they've obviously Begron was amazing for six

706
00:50:53.440 --> 00:50:58.119
games, and Ivaldi's been pretty awesome, and Dunning has been pretty good.

707
00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:02.880
But this is a Texas Rangers team
that at one point had five players on

708
00:51:02.960 --> 00:51:06.440
the field at the same time as
the All Star Game, and then had

709
00:51:06.480 --> 00:51:13.559
six players because I think Givaldi was
pitching at the same time. So Darius,

710
00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:17.320
Okay, Simeon and Seeger being doing
good, but a dull as guys,

711
00:51:17.320 --> 00:51:22.280
see Ye, Jonahaim, Josh Young, like anybody, anybody think this

712
00:51:22.360 --> 00:51:24.400
was going to happen. I think
there was some prospect love for Josh Young,

713
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:27.880
but he also had a pretty terrible
time he was up last time,

714
00:51:27.920 --> 00:51:30.480
did he he did? Yeah?
He? I mean he was injured last

715
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:34.519
year. I think it was a
shoulder issue he had and came up late

716
00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:36.400
in season, and it looked like
it was going to strike out a lot,

717
00:51:36.519 --> 00:51:39.840
still striking out a decent amount,
but acceptably so. But I think,

718
00:51:40.119 --> 00:51:42.639
you know, we looked at this
team and we said, yeah,

719
00:51:42.679 --> 00:51:45.360
you know, they've got Sime and
they've got seeing him maybe young Fause,

720
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:51.079
maybe low replicates his season. But
then it's like, what is this outfield?

721
00:51:51.119 --> 00:51:54.239
Even outside of Garcia and Leodi,
Tavarius has stepped up and as he

722
00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:58.480
creeled around, as stepped up and
suddenly it's like, oh, well,

723
00:51:58.519 --> 00:52:01.679
now now we have a complete team
here. Yeah. Him has proved that

724
00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:05.159
last season wasn't a fluke for him. In fact, he's been even better,

725
00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:07.639
and suddenly it's like, oh,
yeah, yeah, the Rangers have

726
00:52:07.719 --> 00:52:12.480
got a complete lineup. It's stayed
healthy pretty much. You know, all

727
00:52:12.519 --> 00:52:15.079
these guys outside of Seeger's had you
know, his customary trip to the aisle,

728
00:52:15.119 --> 00:52:19.440
but he's not missed a massive amount
of time and he's been pretty elite

729
00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:22.440
when he's been on the field.
And I think I still have concerns over

730
00:52:22.559 --> 00:52:27.519
this rotation because I could see,
you know, it would be surprising if

731
00:52:27.679 --> 00:52:31.559
Voldi and Hey both stay healthy throughout
the second half, and then you like

732
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:35.440
look at what they've got below that, and it's like, yeah, I

733
00:52:35.519 --> 00:52:37.519
don't know about this. So I
think they're going to go out and get

734
00:52:37.599 --> 00:52:40.480
started, because without the Grom that's
looking a bit of shaky, but in

735
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:45.159
terms of my expectations, yeah,
this is this is absolutely an A and

736
00:52:45.400 --> 00:52:50.320
it's an A performance as well.
Yeah, I said pretty season. I

737
00:52:50.440 --> 00:52:53.039
said, they're going to fly out
the gates, absolutely fly out of the

738
00:52:53.079 --> 00:52:57.639
gates, and then at some point
Bits is going to start flying off in

739
00:52:57.639 --> 00:53:01.039
all directions. Now we lost the
Grom, big loss for them. The

740
00:53:01.360 --> 00:53:06.719
miracle is that the Nathan and of
Aldi's elbow is still connected to the rest

741
00:53:06.760 --> 00:53:09.239
of his body. I think,
I mean, you would be hard pressed

742
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:12.239
to find someone who would say he's
going to go to the rest of the

743
00:53:12.320 --> 00:53:16.440
season, keep this up, keep
his body intact. I don't see it.

744
00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:21.000
I don't see it happening. I'd
love to be proved wrong, because

745
00:53:21.119 --> 00:53:25.519
you know, it's nice to see
a team actually sort of come from behind

746
00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:30.000
and spend the money and do a
good job. But I still cannot see

747
00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:34.440
this rotation lasting. It's gonna the
Bits are gonna come flying out, bits

748
00:53:34.440 --> 00:53:37.840
of Wilbow going everywhere, and that's
I think what's going to scuffer them at

749
00:53:37.880 --> 00:53:42.519
the end. That said, absolutely, where they are right now, fantastic,

750
00:53:42.639 --> 00:53:46.159
brilliant job. B plus for me, I had high expectations of where

751
00:53:46.199 --> 00:53:50.480
they were going for this first half, and I would say they probably exceeded

752
00:53:50.519 --> 00:53:52.360
those high expectations. As Darius said, the outfield much better than I thought

753
00:53:52.360 --> 00:53:57.639
they were going to be. So
I'm B plus B plus all right,

754
00:53:58.119 --> 00:54:00.360
let's go on tumb us when a
performance so far, so we'll go a

755
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:07.440
B plus for where they are.
So they're now only a couple of games

756
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:09.960
ahead of the Houston Asterides that was
a lot larger. At some point,

757
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:15.320
the Astroids of seemingly worked themselves and
off like back into being not quite the

758
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:17.960
juggernaut we were at. Well,
I think we didn't think they were going

759
00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:21.119
to be that much of a juggernaut
anymore. The lost a couple of their

760
00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:28.039
players from the pitching side. Yeah, are they just basically I've got them

761
00:54:28.079 --> 00:54:32.199
as like a B as performance or
a B plus on performance and just kind

762
00:54:32.199 --> 00:54:37.079
of like a B minus on expectations
because they're basically going to be a ninety

763
00:54:37.119 --> 00:54:40.559
win team, which is what I
think they were going to be after the

764
00:54:40.719 --> 00:54:44.639
changes that they had. Yes,
I think Fraba Valdez has continued to be

765
00:54:45.400 --> 00:54:50.280
amazing. Hunter Brown has been pretty
good, especially if you prefer some of

766
00:54:50.360 --> 00:54:53.599
his underlying metrics compared to some things
that have happened on the hitting side.

767
00:54:55.639 --> 00:54:59.840
Is Jeremy pinneare having a little bit
of a sophomore slump? Darius is he

768
00:54:59.880 --> 00:55:02.440
not quite the same? It's not
going to be another five war player again

769
00:55:02.480 --> 00:55:07.320
this season or whatever. But Sucker
and Alvarez have been pretty phenomenal. I

770
00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:15.239
just once again, this just goes
with Jozo Breu being absolutely god awful so

771
00:55:15.400 --> 00:55:17.800
far for them, although he's got
a bit better. The fact that he's

772
00:55:17.840 --> 00:55:21.320
kind of like, I think at
one point was about minus one and a

773
00:55:21.400 --> 00:55:23.920
half war and I think he's now
managed to get that back to under minus

774
00:55:23.960 --> 00:55:27.679
one war now, so he's kind
of working his way back up to being

775
00:55:27.719 --> 00:55:31.840
average. And the age old question, which was even on like effectively World

776
00:55:31.880 --> 00:55:36.559
the other day, what does Martin
Aldermard actually do for a team, because

777
00:55:36.639 --> 00:55:39.519
everything that's publicly available suggest that he
shouldn't be anywhere near that starting lineup.

778
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:46.559
Yeah, I think the brave thing
alone like as doing this team down slightly

779
00:55:46.599 --> 00:55:50.719
below from my expectations. I thought
they would be kind of a load to

780
00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:53.199
mid nighties win team again, maybe
they can still get back there, but

781
00:55:53.400 --> 00:55:58.800
you know, Bregman hasn't really hit
Abreu definitely hasn't hit. It's not the

782
00:55:58.960 --> 00:56:02.360
same level of fearsome. The lineup
was our two days really struggled. You

783
00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:05.920
know, it's been on and off
the IL and yeah, Penia is,

784
00:56:06.199 --> 00:56:09.199
you know, showing his approach issues
to the great defender. But there's there's

785
00:56:09.280 --> 00:56:14.519
questions there. So and then I
think the pitching, the depth isn't there

786
00:56:14.559 --> 00:56:19.800
either. We've seen have here not
replicate his success from last year. Mccullars

787
00:56:20.119 --> 00:56:23.119
might not pitch this year. And
you know then they're starting like guys like

788
00:56:23.440 --> 00:56:28.000
Reynold Blanco. You know, JP
France has done it right actually, but

789
00:56:28.079 --> 00:56:32.480
I don't know that's going to continue. It's not the same juggernaut. Oh

790
00:56:32.519 --> 00:56:36.119
my god, how are we going
to beat these guys asteroids? So I

791
00:56:36.199 --> 00:56:39.360
think they're like a c widness on
expectations for me. But I think you

792
00:56:39.440 --> 00:56:45.199
still got given, you know,
b Ish for performance. Have we had

793
00:56:45.199 --> 00:56:50.039
a France versus France matchup yet?
I think we have? Yeah, I

794
00:56:50.159 --> 00:56:57.840
think twenty twenty five. Thank you
very much, Rob plugging up future endeavors.

795
00:56:58.119 --> 00:57:01.119
Yeah, so let's just say be
for effort and see plus maybe for

796
00:57:01.440 --> 00:57:06.519
the Astros for I'm not a plus
on them yet. This is the Astrews.

797
00:57:06.599 --> 00:57:12.440
This is the team who we've become
expecting to be brainnially the big boys,

798
00:57:12.480 --> 00:57:15.400
and yes, slight step back,
but in there they are sneakily catching

799
00:57:15.480 --> 00:57:19.519
them up, but they're not there
later they are. They are a long

800
00:57:19.639 --> 00:57:22.960
way behind, you know, the
AA least at this point, at the

801
00:57:22.039 --> 00:57:25.239
top of that that division. And
I think that's not a place that you'd

802
00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:29.920
expect the Astros to be, even
with a slight step back. So i'm

803
00:57:30.039 --> 00:57:32.760
cc minus, I'm not I'm not
plussing them on that. Okay, take

804
00:57:32.800 --> 00:57:37.480
that out of your mouth. Ty
France is two for three against JP France.

805
00:57:37.599 --> 00:57:42.760
Two singles. Be lightful the things
that you can have at baseball.

806
00:57:43.239 --> 00:57:46.119
Um. So, a few further
games back, we have the Mariners,

807
00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:52.960
who were just over five hundred forty
five forty four. Now. They obviously

808
00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:58.159
had the fantastic kind of run towards
the end of last season and kind of

809
00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:02.000
some fun in the postseason, but
some people want to they were going to

810
00:58:02.039 --> 00:58:06.039
pro jump forward. I don't think
they made them moves to make this team

811
00:58:06.119 --> 00:58:08.559
actually be that much better. So
I kind of had these just being a

812
00:58:08.599 --> 00:58:13.760
five hundred team and they are at
five hundred team. So did he sit

813
00:58:13.920 --> 00:58:16.480
fairly similar to what we've talked about
with the Guardians and the Twins, where

814
00:58:16.519 --> 00:58:21.199
it's kind of it's it's a bit
more. Maybe you thought they would have

815
00:58:21.199 --> 00:58:23.760
been a little bit better, but
it's kind of it's either that CC or

816
00:58:23.880 --> 00:58:30.800
CD sort of territory. I think
CC for me and with you. You

817
00:58:30.840 --> 00:58:32.840
know, I think if I was
ranking teams that did exactly what I thought

818
00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:37.000
they were going to do, the
Mariners at number one, we looked at

819
00:58:37.039 --> 00:58:38.480
this pitch and we said amazing.
We looked at the offense and we said,

820
00:58:38.960 --> 00:58:42.400
what are you're doing? Gary,
Like you need more here, and

821
00:58:42.519 --> 00:58:45.400
they didn't get more. And maybe
some of it's been a bit worse than

822
00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:47.880
we thought. You know, Culten
Wong has been a disaster, But I

823
00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:51.159
think overall lives like, if this
team is going to have a problem,

824
00:58:51.199 --> 00:58:53.000
it's going to be not hitting enough. And guess what, they haven't hit

825
00:58:53.119 --> 00:58:57.079
enough. Pitching has been excellent and
they haven't been able to back it up.

826
00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:00.239
So I think this is exactly where
I thought they'd be, you know,

827
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:01.800
eighty three, eighty four, ay
five kind of team, and that's

828
00:59:01.840 --> 00:59:06.320
probably where they're gonna end up.
Yeah, one gun Pollocker not really done

829
00:59:06.400 --> 00:59:13.440
what they hoped for? Have them
now? Well? Do you see and

830
00:59:13.559 --> 00:59:21.880
move on? Indeed? Two,
So the Los Angeles Angels, who still

831
00:59:21.960 --> 00:59:27.559
have the best team, best player
in baseball and effectively can't make a five

832
00:59:27.679 --> 00:59:35.159
hundred team. This is now I
want to see. Yeah x it has

833
00:59:35.199 --> 00:59:38.840
been ten years, since eleven years, nine years since the Angels made the

834
00:59:38.840 --> 00:59:45.840
playoffs when they when it was twenty
thirteen, and they dupe us every single

835
00:59:45.079 --> 00:59:52.880
year, every single year. Lever
people are fooled by the Angels every single

836
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:54.559
year. I don't get it.
I'm not giving them a grade. It's

837
00:59:54.599 --> 01:00:01.280
a U from me. It's twenty
fourteen, twenty fourteen. So this will

838
01:00:01.280 --> 01:00:08.840
be the bonus points if you can
remember what happened listence, didn't they went

839
01:00:08.880 --> 01:00:15.599
out on the wild card? Didn't
they swept by the Royals? Like not,

840
01:00:15.800 --> 01:00:19.519
they won't alone that vist season and
getting swept by the Royals. But

841
01:00:21.719 --> 01:00:23.800
one for twelve. Yeah, this
is the thing, Like we look at

842
01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:27.400
this team and it's like, yes, Trouts had a bit of time out

843
01:00:27.400 --> 01:00:31.079
with Tho injured, but he's put
up three point one war Atani is anywhere

844
01:00:31.119 --> 01:00:36.719
between six and seven war depending on
what metric you used to describe him with

845
01:00:36.800 --> 01:00:39.480
him being one of the best hitters
of the game and then also being kind

846
01:00:39.519 --> 01:00:45.960
of a relatively solid picture as well. Um, I know why I've said

847
01:00:46.039 --> 01:00:52.480
this before, but how on earth
they can't seem to just put replacement level

848
01:00:52.519 --> 01:00:57.880
players on the field, Like how
like it seems to be just a combination

849
01:00:57.920 --> 01:01:01.360
of things that like people just there
have been some good stuff like Maniacs played

850
01:01:01.400 --> 01:01:05.559
well at times and Nettos played well
at times, but then they've not played

851
01:01:06.119 --> 01:01:09.320
much and then obviously then on the
opposite of scale, like Joe Walsh was

852
01:01:09.400 --> 01:01:15.880
an absolute garbage fire and for some
of the pitching wise, like Jose Suarez

853
01:01:16.639 --> 01:01:22.400
did they give him six starts and
had a close to ten ten and then

854
01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:25.920
he went on the aisle. I
think, yeah, yeah, You're like

855
01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:36.400
it's like you've got you the top
of that Debtmos has been okay, Sandoval

856
01:01:36.440 --> 01:01:38.880
has been okay. Tyler Anderson maybe
not quite. I think that's the problem

857
01:01:38.920 --> 01:01:43.880
though, Isn't it like they've been
okay and maybe you should say, yeah,

858
01:01:43.880 --> 01:01:46.239
they've got the two of the best
players on the planets, so okay,

859
01:01:46.320 --> 01:01:50.920
should cut it. But it hasn't
really, and they've like rushed a

860
01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:52.880
lot of these guys, you know, deliberately, these guys when they had

861
01:01:52.920 --> 01:01:55.360
their all picture drafts and they were
just like, we're going to get these

862
01:01:55.400 --> 01:02:00.440
guys to the majors fast, and
most of them kind of look like it,

863
01:02:00.599 --> 01:02:05.440
you know, they look like the
rushed up pretty quick to plug the

864
01:02:05.559 --> 01:02:09.000
holes. And it hasn't really worked
that well. And I just, you

865
01:02:09.119 --> 01:02:13.159
know, it would be nice if
Layer in a position where I thought they're

866
01:02:13.159 --> 01:02:15.039
going to go make out, go
and make a big pitching addition and maybe

867
01:02:15.159 --> 01:02:19.719
sure up this rotation a bit.
But you know, with the Astros and

868
01:02:19.880 --> 01:02:22.039
the Rangers ahead of them, and
now Trout's going to be out for most

869
01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:25.800
of the rest of the year,
I don't see it. So yeah,

870
01:02:25.880 --> 01:02:30.920
it's sad. But what were my
expectations. I think we did say about

871
01:02:30.960 --> 01:02:35.480
five because I was sick of predicting
that the Angels were going to be good

872
01:02:35.519 --> 01:02:39.920
this year. So I guess it's
a sea and a sea again. I'm

873
01:02:39.960 --> 01:02:43.960
sticking with you. You I'm not
having it. It's just ridiculous, Like

874
01:02:44.280 --> 01:02:46.440
for years we've been saying, stop
the Stars and Scrubs, go for average.

875
01:02:46.480 --> 01:02:49.719
Oh they went for average. Still
didn't work. I don't get it.

876
01:02:49.800 --> 01:02:53.039
It doesn't make any sense. I'm
new youing this well. I've given

877
01:02:53.079 --> 01:02:55.719
them a CD. I think they're
similar to the Guardians of the Twins that

878
01:02:55.800 --> 01:03:01.480
like, I think our expectations were
we even if we didn't think as the

879
01:03:01.559 --> 01:03:06.239
Watcher was going to happen, there
were still some expectations that this team could

880
01:03:06.239 --> 01:03:10.079
actually be Like, Yeah, in
my heart, I expected more logically,

881
01:03:10.159 --> 01:03:15.920
I was like for me six times
shaw with me, yes, and so

882
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:22.199
we're gonna quite quickly move on to
the one team which does get the the

883
01:03:22.280 --> 01:03:25.679
other second team that gets the double
FF or even if we want to just

884
01:03:25.760 --> 01:03:30.079
say, we're just going to choose
to just completely honestly not to rank this

885
01:03:30.239 --> 01:03:35.719
team because everything that they've done makes
them almost not worthy from an ownership perspective

886
01:03:35.800 --> 01:03:39.880
of anything to do with baseball.
But they give the ownership of g for

887
01:03:40.039 --> 01:03:44.800
me, I think they're expelled,
aren't they? Isn't that if we're going

888
01:03:44.840 --> 01:03:49.519
with the school think they were.
They got their phone out during the exam

889
01:03:49.599 --> 01:03:52.159
and they were told to leave because
they weren't allowed to do that. So

890
01:03:52.440 --> 01:04:00.639
yeah, they didn't. They didn't
finish happy with that one um to talk

891
01:04:00.679 --> 01:04:05.960
about what's actually happened on the field, for a bit they've been out,

892
01:04:06.400 --> 01:04:10.880
They've not been the worst team from
a hitting perspective that I think people will

893
01:04:10.920 --> 01:04:14.000
need to kind of obviously they had
the perfect game thrown against them. I

894
01:04:14.079 --> 01:04:15.960
may people do need to understand that
from a hitting perspective, they are't actually

895
01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:19.519
the worst team in baseball this year. They're probably like in the twenty five

896
01:04:19.679 --> 01:04:26.239
the twenty ringe actually worth hitting teams
set far this year. But from a

897
01:04:26.320 --> 01:04:30.159
pitching perspective, they've done something that
I just didn't think was possible. They've

898
01:04:30.199 --> 01:04:39.800
just thrown out so many self replacement
players that it genuinely to actually say that

899
01:04:39.880 --> 01:04:43.559
someone is bringing the sport into disrepute, I think is a very hard thing

900
01:04:43.679 --> 01:04:46.800
to really say or proval to get
to get behind. But I think what

901
01:04:47.760 --> 01:04:50.960
at least with the first few weeks
of the season, what they were throwing

902
01:04:51.039 --> 01:04:56.079
out there was some of it.
It's not even like Triple A level pitching,

903
01:04:56.280 --> 01:04:59.440
Like I would have prepared throwing Triple
A pitchers up there and expected them

904
01:04:59.480 --> 01:05:03.920
to perform better than these guys.
Stereous. Yeah, I think it was

905
01:05:04.280 --> 01:05:08.239
Rob who made the point that,
like, you know, can't they find

906
01:05:08.519 --> 01:05:13.840
somebody else that they should be there? Just anybody, anybody, they can

907
01:05:13.880 --> 01:05:16.880
get it for free, would be
better than this. I do like JPCS,

908
01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:20.000
I'm not going to be mean about
Sears, and Mason Miller looked fantastic

909
01:05:20.119 --> 01:05:23.840
for the very brief time he was
on the field. I do think they've

910
01:05:23.880 --> 01:05:26.760
had a little bit of bad luck
with some of the injuries you said the

911
01:05:26.840 --> 01:05:29.320
other day as well rested the like. Once they put Fuji and Imi in

912
01:05:29.320 --> 01:05:30.599
the bullpen, it was like,
oh, yeah, this is this is

913
01:05:30.679 --> 01:05:33.760
working because guess what, he's a
reliever. He's got no control, but

914
01:05:33.960 --> 01:05:38.199
it's got filthy stuff. So whatever
they were doing at the start of the

915
01:05:38.280 --> 01:05:42.559
year, yeah, but the rest
of it is is a complete mess.

916
01:05:43.719 --> 01:05:46.960
Like you just cannot believe how bad
some of these pictures have been. And

917
01:05:47.639 --> 01:05:50.440
still pitched a pretty decent chunk of
innings for the AIDS. But I guess

918
01:05:50.519 --> 01:05:54.920
this is just what happens when you
literally do not care what happens in the

919
01:05:55.000 --> 01:06:01.960
field. Yep, so they have
well the chuck basically did just chuck.

920
01:06:02.320 --> 01:06:09.719
So they walk so many guys it's
crazy. Yeah, the teams were taken

921
01:06:09.760 --> 01:06:13.719
to approach that I could only describe
as single a British baseball which is literally

922
01:06:13.760 --> 01:06:16.719
just do not swing until they throw
a strike. We're just like, you

923
01:06:16.800 --> 01:06:19.880
know what, they've got to throw
three strikes, so you can just wait,

924
01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:25.079
mate, and they'll walk you because
they're not good enother. So,

925
01:06:26.960 --> 01:06:30.960
yes, it was not not a
good season. Where would you like to

926
01:06:31.079 --> 01:06:38.760
go for our East discussion? N
L L N l's more depressing. Let's

927
01:06:38.760 --> 01:06:42.840
finish, Let's finish happier, okay, and L East we will go to.

928
01:06:43.079 --> 01:06:46.280
Well, we'll talk about I think
one of the one of the teams

929
01:06:46.320 --> 01:06:53.440
that I have was an S rank
for performance, the Atlanta Braves. I

930
01:06:53.519 --> 01:06:59.440
don't think we can really go on
much about this. I think most people,

931
01:06:59.599 --> 01:07:01.840
even though everything that the Mets have
done in the offseason, still had

932
01:07:01.880 --> 01:07:04.159
the Braves being the best team in
this division. I think I might have

933
01:07:04.239 --> 01:07:08.719
had them maybe close or within one
or two wins of each other, but

934
01:07:09.400 --> 01:07:15.239
the Braves have taken expectations and kind
of smashed them there. They're one of

935
01:07:15.320 --> 01:07:18.599
two teams that are, if we
go on off at a rate record would

936
01:07:18.599 --> 01:07:23.360
actually get to that one hundred win
mark. So they think they're they're on

937
01:07:23.480 --> 01:07:28.400
pace for a one hundred and nine
wins right now, which they're not going

938
01:07:28.480 --> 01:07:31.039
to get because even if any team
does get close to that sort of record,

939
01:07:31.079 --> 01:07:33.239
they rest some of the players towards
the end of the season to make

940
01:07:33.280 --> 01:07:40.800
sure they could for the postseason.
But they've been nothing short of phenomenal.

941
01:07:41.519 --> 01:07:45.840
I think there's a couple of positions
which people could say, yeah, maybe

942
01:07:45.920 --> 01:07:49.519
we would actually want to change those, but other than that, they've basically

943
01:07:49.599 --> 01:07:55.719
been the best team in baseball.
Sorry, Rob, true, it's true.

944
01:07:56.440 --> 01:08:00.880
So yeah, I have them as
an s performance and a for expectation.

945
01:08:01.320 --> 01:08:03.719
Could point give them the doubles just
because I think a couple of the

946
01:08:03.760 --> 01:08:10.679
teams have outperformed expectation even more than
the Braves have outperformed expectation. Well,

947
01:08:12.320 --> 01:08:15.000
yeah, absolutely, fantastic, brilliant. Mean that they are the best team

948
01:08:15.039 --> 01:08:17.479
in baseball right now. There's there's
really really no denying that they are.

949
01:08:17.920 --> 01:08:24.239
They are pretty complete. If you're
looking at the rotation as their weak point,

950
01:08:24.680 --> 01:08:28.439
yes, it probably is their weak
point, but that is a weak

951
01:08:28.479 --> 01:08:30.640
point that every other team would be
envious of. It's it's still very,

952
01:08:30.720 --> 01:08:38.079
very strong. The Braves have been
phenomenal for years. They had a dip

953
01:08:38.199 --> 01:08:42.640
and some people were surprised when they
won the World Series, but a lot

954
01:08:42.640 --> 01:08:45.760
of people weren't because they've been showing
that they had a bad year the year

955
01:08:45.760 --> 01:08:49.119
before, but they've been hovering around
the high nineties year after year after year.

956
01:08:49.479 --> 01:08:55.159
For some reason, they still not
quite getting that that sort of Astro's

957
01:08:55.319 --> 01:08:59.880
Yankees kind of kind of these guys
are perennially there and perennially massive, but

958
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:02.880
they are. These guys are have
been there for a long time. There

959
01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:08.000
is no reason to think that's going
to stop anytime soon. They've got the

960
01:09:08.119 --> 01:09:11.439
MVP, who is is all but
locked it up already as long as he

961
01:09:11.439 --> 01:09:15.079
doesn't get himself hurt in a Kunya
is a fantastic team. I can't see

962
01:09:15.079 --> 01:09:16.439
anybody topping them. No one is
going to get close to him in that

963
01:09:16.520 --> 01:09:21.560
division, and certainly in the National
League, they're by far and away the

964
01:09:21.640 --> 01:09:29.199
team to be. I think the
question, Dearish you can probably go into

965
01:09:29.239 --> 01:09:32.600
the further is pitches four and five. But as the season continues, pitches

966
01:09:32.640 --> 01:09:38.760
four and five matter less and less, don't they they do? Yeah,

967
01:09:38.840 --> 01:09:41.680
Freed is on his way back,
I think, And you know, if

968
01:09:41.720 --> 01:09:45.079
the Braves can roll out Strider Freed
Morton, I think they're going to feel

969
01:09:45.239 --> 01:09:49.840
pretty good about themselves. So and
yeah, Strider is unbelievable, Like,

970
01:09:49.840 --> 01:09:54.319
I don't think it's you know,
his surface level stats reflect just how unbelievable

971
01:09:54.359 --> 01:10:00.560
he is. And then a Kunya
might go like fourty seventy what do you

972
01:10:00.760 --> 01:10:02.279
what do you say about that?
I think the only thing I would say

973
01:10:02.359 --> 01:10:05.039
is I might not give them an
A for expectations because I thought they'd be

974
01:10:05.199 --> 01:10:10.520
a ninety five ninety six win team
anyway. Um, yeah, but they're

975
01:10:10.520 --> 01:10:13.039
protected, would be one hundred and
nine win team, Darius, Like,

976
01:10:13.680 --> 01:10:19.359
you know, they're they're they're they're
protected now to win one hundred and three

977
01:10:19.439 --> 01:10:25.880
games, like that's how far they
well, they're like they've gone against Yeah,

978
01:10:25.920 --> 01:10:28.920
I'm not I'm not saying it's a
c They've exceeded my expectations, but

979
01:10:29.000 --> 01:10:31.600
when I'm starting at ninety six,
I don't know that I give them an

980
01:10:31.680 --> 01:10:38.760
A for getting to one hundred and
three A people, all right, I'll

981
01:10:38.800 --> 01:10:45.439
give it then eight and a half
games back, but still with a solid

982
01:10:45.520 --> 01:10:50.520
record. The most confusing team in
baseball, I think I think it's it's

983
01:10:50.560 --> 01:10:57.840
fairly fairly simplistic to say this,
Um the Miami Leans, Um, Darius,

984
01:10:57.880 --> 01:10:59.199
do you know, off the top
of the head, are they still

985
01:10:59.279 --> 01:11:03.840
something like twenty one and four in
one run games or yeah it' it' isn't

986
01:11:03.880 --> 01:11:05.840
that region. I don't think exactly
record, but I think, yeah,

987
01:11:05.840 --> 01:11:10.359
it was twenty one and five maybe
the last time I checked, which would

988
01:11:10.359 --> 01:11:15.439
be the best of all time.
Yeah, it's it's utterly ridiculous. This

989
01:11:15.600 --> 01:11:20.520
team is where are they? Sorry? They still have the negative run differential.

990
01:11:20.600 --> 01:11:25.199
Yeah, twenty one and six they
have a negative run different differential.

991
01:11:25.520 --> 01:11:30.239
So the Pythagorean luck is that like
eight wins. I will say that I

992
01:11:30.640 --> 01:11:33.079
heard this other day. It might
have been on the bandwagon. I think

993
01:11:33.560 --> 01:11:39.039
that against like Atlanta, they've got
like a negative fifty five run differential,

994
01:11:39.079 --> 01:11:42.159
and against everyone else they're like,
you know, plus forty nine or whatever.

995
01:11:42.800 --> 01:11:46.039
So there is just they are getting
absolutely host every every time they play

996
01:11:46.039 --> 01:11:49.039
Atlanta, and then against everyone else
they are actually a pretty decent team.

997
01:11:50.199 --> 01:11:55.079
Yeah. Sorry, just one thing. So this is the team that I

998
01:11:55.119 --> 01:11:58.560
found hard is to actually say what
I think their performance was, because I

999
01:11:58.680 --> 01:12:00.479
was just takeing their with wins record, it would easily be like an A

1000
01:12:00.760 --> 01:12:05.600
or a B plus or whatever,
but not certain what their performance actually.

1001
01:12:05.800 --> 01:12:12.119
It's like, it's so this is
like that Seattle team from three or four

1002
01:12:12.199 --> 01:12:15.479
years ago, where they were just
winning every single one run game and kind

1003
01:12:15.520 --> 01:12:19.359
of making a play even though everybody
else was kind of relatively certain that they

1004
01:12:19.399 --> 01:12:23.680
were naps. I do think somebody
who say that, I think sometimes we

1005
01:12:23.760 --> 01:12:26.840
need to look at run different the
pip bagarian win loss record, or look

1006
01:12:26.840 --> 01:12:30.840
at run differential in a different way
now that we have teams that are throwing

1007
01:12:30.880 --> 01:12:34.680
out position player pitchers when they're kind
of out of it because they're just they're

1008
01:12:34.720 --> 01:12:39.159
going to get shelved even more so, like they're just eating innings that nobody

1009
01:12:39.159 --> 01:12:43.479
actually cares about. Like, yeah, it's it's good for some players stats,

1010
01:12:43.560 --> 01:12:45.880
but from the team's perspective, like
they don't actually care that they conceded

1011
01:12:46.680 --> 01:12:51.960
ten runs from position player pitching.
But it would be remiss of us also

1012
01:12:53.039 --> 01:12:56.439
not to talk about the fact that
they have a player who's chasing. I

1013
01:12:56.479 --> 01:12:59.920
don't think he's going to get anywhere
close to it four hundred from a Banning

1014
01:13:00.079 --> 01:13:03.039
much perspective, and to be still
be at three eighty three when we have

1015
01:13:03.159 --> 01:13:13.319
played ninety games is utterly phenomenal.
Rob Everyone was very anti that trade from

1016
01:13:13.359 --> 01:13:15.640
a Marlin's point of view, when
it happened. I think it is um

1017
01:13:16.520 --> 01:13:20.000
Personally, I wasn't through through sharing
durrants and luck rather than knowing anything.

1018
01:13:20.359 --> 01:13:26.000
But I think it is certainly leaning
a little bit further back towards the middle

1019
01:13:26.039 --> 01:13:30.560
than it was on most people's scales
these days. Um, I don't think

1020
01:13:30.680 --> 01:13:35.640
there's a major jump in the multiverse
to Marlin's team that is that is getting

1021
01:13:35.680 --> 01:13:41.000
hammered day in day out here.
Um, it's a it's a slight change

1022
01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:44.640
in the wind and the guys are
These guys are forth and looking hopeless,

1023
01:13:44.720 --> 01:13:47.279
you know so? Um, But
yeah, I mean where they are,

1024
01:13:47.760 --> 01:13:53.439
it's a solid B. Expectations are
well up on where I thought they would

1025
01:13:53.479 --> 01:13:58.760
be. So I'm a BN and
A yeah. I had to definitely an

1026
01:13:58.760 --> 01:14:00.399
A for expectations. It work out
where I was going to put them for

1027
01:14:00.479 --> 01:14:06.239
actual performance, Darius, Yeah,
B B plus Like I think they should

1028
01:14:06.279 --> 01:14:13.199
get maybe a better effort performance from
an actual performance like win loss record.

1029
01:14:13.319 --> 01:14:16.359
But I just do not believe fifty
three thirty nine. It looks. It

1030
01:14:16.439 --> 01:14:20.000
looks wrong every time I look at
it. So yeah, I think they

1031
01:14:20.079 --> 01:14:26.119
deserved probably to be like an above
five hundred team despite the slightly negative run

1032
01:14:26.159 --> 01:14:30.239
differential, but I do not think
that they remotely deserve to have over fifty

1033
01:14:30.319 --> 01:14:33.720
wins. Okay, so yeah,
I think anything they can do to make

1034
01:14:33.760 --> 01:14:39.199
sure that GC Goora doesn't play anymore
is what the Marlins need to do during

1035
01:14:39.279 --> 01:14:44.680
this trade window. Moving swiftly onwards
to the other teams that is above five

1036
01:14:44.800 --> 01:14:49.720
hundred in this league, is the
Phillies. They are They're forty eight and

1037
01:14:49.800 --> 01:14:54.640
forty one. It's this basically,
as as Rob shouted out, boring,

1038
01:14:54.800 --> 01:14:58.760
is this basically a B in a
B This is kind of or even maybe

1039
01:14:58.760 --> 01:15:01.319
a B in a C plus this
is is reasonable performance and kind of what

1040
01:15:01.439 --> 01:15:09.159
we anticipated to them from them.
Or does the all performances from Pat Turner

1041
01:15:09.239 --> 01:15:13.319
kind of have a little bit of
a knock on effect on it? Did

1042
01:15:13.359 --> 01:15:15.600
you? Were you thinking they were
going to get closer to that ninety wins,

1043
01:15:15.680 --> 01:15:17.800
Darius? No, I didn't really
believe in the Fities that much.

1044
01:15:17.800 --> 01:15:20.199
I didn't even really believe in the
Fities that much when they're in the World

1045
01:15:20.239 --> 01:15:26.199
Series last year. So this this
half season definitely hasn't done that mostly change

1046
01:15:26.239 --> 01:15:28.479
my mind. I mean, it's
not you know, Castianos's back back,

1047
01:15:28.600 --> 01:15:31.359
bounce back, But yeah, training
turning up being good and Harper. You

1048
01:15:31.399 --> 01:15:36.119
know, its like had a weird
production season, Like you know, if

1049
01:15:36.159 --> 01:15:40.319
those guys are all firing in all
cylinders and you are scared of this lineup.

1050
01:15:40.439 --> 01:15:44.319
I don't think I'm scared of this
lineup right now. The pitching I

1051
01:15:44.399 --> 01:15:47.439
think is better than you know,
the R Ray numbers show. I think

1052
01:15:47.479 --> 01:15:50.159
we live and are both going to
be better over the second half from a

1053
01:15:50.279 --> 01:15:54.399
represent the French and standpoint, which
makes them, you know, a pretty

1054
01:15:54.399 --> 01:15:58.479
scary team to meet in the playoffs
if they get there. But yeah,

1055
01:15:58.520 --> 01:16:00.880
I think I think B and A
B is it's fair for me. I

1056
01:16:00.239 --> 01:16:03.079
you know, wasn't expecting them to
be that much of a five hundred.

1057
01:16:03.199 --> 01:16:05.800
So if they get to night,
I think that will be definitely be at

1058
01:16:05.800 --> 01:16:12.319
the end of the season. Yeah, I fine, Fine, So I

1059
01:16:12.399 --> 01:16:15.479
think it'll gonna be in simplus.
Yeah, they probably should beat the Marlins,

1060
01:16:15.840 --> 01:16:18.600
but they're definitely not going to catch
at Lander, so it's fine.

1061
01:16:19.079 --> 01:16:23.680
Yeah, I sell think the Phillies
are a scary team for a postseason.

1062
01:16:24.319 --> 01:16:30.600
I think with Wheeler, Nola and
Walker and Suarez and Craig Kimberl's kind of

1063
01:16:30.640 --> 01:16:32.680
back again. Like I love this. I love the kimberl roller caster.

1064
01:16:32.760 --> 01:16:35.760
You're just never gonna know what you're
gonna get to. Oh yeah, did

1065
01:16:35.800 --> 01:16:41.079
you watch the end of the All
Star Game? I did not watch any

1066
01:16:41.119 --> 01:16:43.439
of ther Star I game. Well, it's like he got the final linings

1067
01:16:43.479 --> 01:16:45.920
to close out for like for the
NL or whatever, walk too struck two

1068
01:16:46.000 --> 01:16:50.800
out like it was such a it
was grand teetering on the edge of form,

1069
01:16:50.800 --> 01:16:54.159
like an implosion that would have cost
them the game, but kind of

1070
01:16:54.199 --> 01:16:57.640
somehow got it of the line.
Like he he threw the most pictures to

1071
01:16:57.720 --> 01:17:00.479
pitch his inning out of anybody's like
who they all threw like one inning or

1072
01:17:00.600 --> 01:17:04.000
less. Yeah, it's not efficient, but he is still one of like

1073
01:17:04.119 --> 01:17:14.520
the filthiest pitchers in baseball. Oh
so the New York Mets forty two and

1074
01:17:14.800 --> 01:17:19.880
forty eight, and um yeah,
where do we start here? I think

1075
01:17:19.920 --> 01:17:24.199
I think we actually have to start
here from the pitching perspective, because I

1076
01:17:24.439 --> 01:17:29.159
was one of the people who was
pretty doubled on this pitching lineup coming into

1077
01:17:29.199 --> 01:17:32.800
this season. I thought that they
had six, seven, maybe even eight

1078
01:17:33.239 --> 01:17:40.239
reasonable starters. They had three or
four that I thought the top class shares

1079
01:17:40.279 --> 01:17:44.119
are and Verlander. I think Verlander
has kind of definitely been been better.

1080
01:17:44.239 --> 01:17:47.960
Shares there has not quite been to
the level that we anticipated. Codey Singer

1081
01:17:48.000 --> 01:17:53.079
has been after a thing a rough
first month or whatever, it's been pretty

1082
01:17:53.359 --> 01:17:59.239
pretty strong and close to like phenomenal
pitching. But given the fact to rely

1083
01:17:59.359 --> 01:18:01.439
on Peterson and then McGill and all
and all that, I think Carrasco has

1084
01:18:01.479 --> 01:18:08.800
been poor. It's it's just not
nothing's come together here, Like Linda Or

1085
01:18:08.920 --> 01:18:15.479
and Nimo have been good. Alberts
I think it's pretty amazing since he's come

1086
01:18:15.560 --> 01:18:20.920
up and then you've just got a
lot of kind of Mayor and it's just

1087
01:18:21.239 --> 01:18:24.840
yeah, it's just it's just it's
I think that's the word it's been.

1088
01:18:24.880 --> 01:18:28.359
It's been just the team as mayor. And we were expecting so much more,

1089
01:18:29.479 --> 01:18:31.680
so much more from this team.
I was even expecting Daniel Vocal back

1090
01:18:31.760 --> 01:18:38.119
to get a stolen basic. He
still hasn't done it. Like, yeah,

1091
01:18:38.239 --> 01:18:41.399
probably fam shouldn't be your your fifth
best hit to buy war at this

1092
01:18:41.560 --> 01:18:45.560
point for a team to spend that
kind of money. Mark Hanna has has

1093
01:18:45.600 --> 01:18:51.159
been disappointing. Um even Brett bay
To who you know, he's he's come

1094
01:18:51.239 --> 01:18:55.560
up with with high hopes. He's
not looking what we hoped he would.

1095
01:18:56.760 --> 01:19:00.279
It's just been it's been very mere, as you say, and in what

1096
01:19:00.560 --> 01:19:06.640
has been a surprisingly competitive from the
other teams being the Marlins and the Phillies,

1097
01:19:08.479 --> 01:19:12.800
they've been left behind a bit and
they are they are as mere as

1098
01:19:12.880 --> 01:19:16.079
the Phillies are. But in the
other direction, I'd say it's also add

1099
01:19:16.479 --> 01:19:21.840
the expectations are horrific. Yes,
I think the I's gonna say that the

1100
01:19:21.920 --> 01:19:26.600
Mets Bullpen I think has been absolutely
shocking this season. I think they've potentially

1101
01:19:26.680 --> 01:19:30.119
got to be up there for the
most blown saves or some of the most

1102
01:19:30.279 --> 01:19:34.199
kind of pretty much worst leverage situations. Darius Is, you're a fellow officionado

1103
01:19:34.279 --> 01:19:39.199
of the Pulpen. I think that's
been pretty shocking. With the exception I

1104
01:19:39.319 --> 01:19:44.439
think of like David Robinson and maybe
Brooks Raley. Yeah, David Robinson has

1105
01:19:44.439 --> 01:19:48.199
been unbelievable and Rady has been very
good too. I'm sure Robert be familiar

1106
01:19:48.199 --> 01:19:54.399
with Brooks Raley's works time and Timm
and Bay. But yeah, the guys

1107
01:19:54.439 --> 01:19:58.560
backing them up has just been nothing. Nothing, they're at all like so

1108
01:19:58.680 --> 01:20:01.319
often they're not getting to the eighth
and the ninth because these guys in the

1109
01:20:01.399 --> 01:20:04.880
sixth and seventh to blow in the
games for them. And you know,

1110
01:20:05.159 --> 01:20:08.640
I don't think they're bad. You
know, you look at those names,

1111
01:20:09.720 --> 01:20:14.520
they're not They're not this bad a
team. Lindor and Nemo and alongside,

1112
01:20:14.640 --> 01:20:17.560
like this is a good baseball team. But we also looked at the team

1113
01:20:17.560 --> 01:20:19.760
when they were putting it together and
said, wow, this is this is

1114
01:20:19.800 --> 01:20:24.800
an old team and Justin Verlander had
no right being as good as he was

1115
01:20:24.920 --> 01:20:28.039
last year, you know, coming
off Tommy John at his age, like

1116
01:20:28.119 --> 01:20:30.119
it was an unbelievable season. But
yeah, you know he stepped back a

1117
01:20:30.159 --> 01:20:34.079
bit. He's still a good pitcher, but he's not an ace anymore,

1118
01:20:35.399 --> 01:20:39.520
shares us. Yeah, he's been
up and down. I think the saner

1119
01:20:39.600 --> 01:20:43.760
has worked out, but yeah,
it's kind of it was like, they

1120
01:20:43.840 --> 01:20:46.520
really need to win now and they're
not winning now, and you do wonder,

1121
01:20:46.600 --> 01:20:50.079
like, what is this team with
all these mid to late thirties if

1122
01:20:50.159 --> 01:20:55.319
not forties, guy, it's going
to look like because you know, there's

1123
01:20:55.319 --> 01:20:58.720
a lot of money going to a
lot of guys who Yeah, Marte looks

1124
01:20:58.760 --> 01:21:02.039
kind of done. It's um,
it's not great and they've you know,

1125
01:21:02.239 --> 01:21:08.359
they've it's gone now. The division
is is well gone. And you don't

1126
01:21:08.439 --> 01:21:13.000
love less answers of the wild card
either at this point. So there's a

1127
01:21:13.079 --> 01:21:15.840
lot of guys here who you've heard
of and were good a few years ago,

1128
01:21:15.960 --> 01:21:21.439
but they are not anymore. It's
very much that that someone is possibly

1129
01:21:21.479 --> 01:21:26.000
missed. The c himself is um, you know, he's looking at a

1130
01:21:26.039 --> 01:21:28.239
spreadsheet and all have that guy,
you'll have him and heard of him.

1131
01:21:28.319 --> 01:21:30.199
Yeah, you'll be good. You
know you've got your Tommy Hunters and your

1132
01:21:30.279 --> 01:21:34.640
Adam Otavinos and your dominic Lyones,
and you know your Carlos Carrasco is Like

1133
01:21:35.119 --> 01:21:39.560
these are players who five years ago
this would have been a brilliant team,

1134
01:21:39.760 --> 01:21:45.520
but not so much anymore. I
think there's a little bit of shortsightedness and

1135
01:21:45.880 --> 01:21:49.840
not a lot of clever thinking put
into this. It was a it seems

1136
01:21:49.880 --> 01:21:55.159
to be found out as a as
a bit of a fantasy pick from someone

1137
01:21:55.199 --> 01:22:00.399
who's plaid half attention and not full
attention. Yes, I got them for

1138
01:22:00.479 --> 01:22:04.000
a D for performance so far and
E against expectations yep, agreed bad.

1139
01:22:04.640 --> 01:22:10.520
And then the Nationals, who I
just have E for expectations for performance and

1140
01:22:10.760 --> 01:22:14.680
see against expectation because they're bad and
we expected them to be bad. Yep,

1141
01:22:15.039 --> 01:22:17.560
is there more to say, Darius? I don't think we need to

1142
01:22:17.560 --> 01:22:20.399
talk about the Nationals. They are
We said they'll be a bad team,

1143
01:22:20.479 --> 01:22:24.439
and here they are being a bad
team, just a regular or bad team,

1144
01:22:24.520 --> 01:22:27.279
not like an Oakland bad team.
So world on Washington. How's joy

1145
01:22:27.319 --> 01:22:30.800
Minesa's doing? He's thinking for average
but not power, which is kind of

1146
01:22:30.920 --> 01:22:34.920
a bit, a bit strange,
a bit strange. This year's French Windel

1147
01:22:36.319 --> 01:22:42.319
better than the French Windel repeat was
doing. Yeah. I mean, Laine

1148
01:22:42.319 --> 01:22:45.000
Thomas is having a great season.
It's not going to hold up. But

1149
01:22:45.079 --> 01:22:47.840
I hope they trade him for something
good before he collapses. Yeah. I

1150
01:22:47.920 --> 01:22:51.680
feel that they've got to trade him
and Candelario, haven't they, Because yes,

1151
01:22:51.960 --> 01:22:57.239
absolutely, Candelarian is going somewhere.
Yeah, yep, and you'll do

1152
01:22:57.359 --> 01:23:00.800
well. Key, Okay, that
becomes nice. Look at E and C.

1153
01:23:01.479 --> 01:23:09.239
And then that brings us to the
stunningly spectacular a at least, which

1154
01:23:09.319 --> 01:23:14.399
has five teams above five hundred,
which I don't know. I can't be

1155
01:23:14.439 --> 01:23:16.119
asked to look this one up to
say how many times that has happened at

1156
01:23:16.159 --> 01:23:20.119
the All Star gap, but I
can't imagine it's happened many times. But

1157
01:23:20.279 --> 01:23:24.359
we have to talk about the second
best team in baseball and the best team

1158
01:23:24.399 --> 01:23:30.600
in the Al the race. They
came out of the block absolutely firing on

1159
01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:35.039
all cylinders. That remarkable start to
the season, a little bit of a

1160
01:23:35.079 --> 01:23:39.760
mini stall, I think, where
you could say either a little bit of

1161
01:23:39.840 --> 01:23:43.159
luck that went away when you get
a winning record went the other way.

1162
01:23:43.720 --> 01:23:47.439
But they've kind of steadied that ship
now and consistently have kind of just kept

1163
01:23:47.479 --> 01:23:50.560
their margin against some of the other
teams. But yeah, they are now

1164
01:23:50.760 --> 01:23:56.119
only two games ahead, but they
do have a fifty eight and thirty five

1165
01:23:56.359 --> 01:23:59.600
record, and by fan grabs,
they ninety eight percent chance of making the

1166
01:23:59.640 --> 01:24:06.159
playoff. This has been a pretty
phenomenal start to the season. Franco Or

1167
01:24:06.199 --> 01:24:12.079
as a Rainer, people you'll expected
it from, but Parades, Diaz,

1168
01:24:12.359 --> 01:24:15.960
Raley, not people that maybe we
expected to do so well. I think

1169
01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:19.239
once again, the reason why the
Rays do so well is they didn't really

1170
01:24:19.279 --> 01:24:24.439
have much time for bad players on
their team, and the only one is

1171
01:24:24.560 --> 01:24:30.119
Mahea, who at this point I
don't understand why anybody is playing like mahea

1172
01:24:31.439 --> 01:24:35.279
as watching him come through the prospect
at Cleveland and basically any time that he

1173
01:24:35.319 --> 01:24:41.159
saw major league, but I think
be utterly awful. I don't quite know

1174
01:24:41.239 --> 01:24:43.439
why people give him the time of
the day. I think he'd had a

1175
01:24:43.479 --> 01:24:47.239
reasonable season back in twenty twenty one, but yeah, that one kind of

1176
01:24:47.279 --> 01:24:50.359
ows me. But I think the
shocking side more to the Rays has been

1177
01:24:51.239 --> 01:24:57.239
Zach Cleffin is probably the best pitcher
and obviously a fan of hand has been

1178
01:24:57.319 --> 01:25:00.920
good, if not very good,
depending on whether you do runs for nine

1179
01:25:01.680 --> 01:25:05.359
runs against kind of metric instead of
a fit based metric. But yeah,

1180
01:25:05.520 --> 01:25:11.800
this this is the Raids kind of
producing stuff that we would anticipate, but

1181
01:25:11.960 --> 01:25:15.479
the movie taking it to that next
level. Rob Yeah, absolutely, the

1182
01:25:15.600 --> 01:25:19.000
winds doesn't It doesn't matter what order
the winds come in and did they had.

1183
01:25:19.079 --> 01:25:24.520
They've had a rough, rough run
for the end of the first half

1184
01:25:24.640 --> 01:25:27.600
up to the All Star Game.
They won the last game, but they

1185
01:25:27.640 --> 01:25:30.239
were on a losing streak of seven
before that or six, can't remember exactly

1186
01:25:30.279 --> 01:25:33.039
how any was, but it was. It was ugly anyway, and they've

1187
01:25:33.279 --> 01:25:39.239
they've not looked great and they've been
brilliant. They've been really fun to watch.

1188
01:25:40.119 --> 01:25:43.800
The first half as has been exceptional. We've been well well above expectations

1189
01:25:43.880 --> 01:25:48.319
we've had, We've had contributions from
from everywhere on the field, but it's

1190
01:25:48.319 --> 01:25:53.279
not been without its holes. The
bullpen has not been typically raizy Um.

1191
01:25:54.199 --> 01:25:58.239
It's hoping to come back a little
bit with some injuries coming back. How

1192
01:25:58.319 --> 01:26:01.199
it looks for the rest of the
season. I don't know every every fan

1193
01:26:01.279 --> 01:26:04.920
will winge about the injury crisis to
their team, but the Rays right now

1194
01:26:05.039 --> 01:26:11.680
probably have a first place rotation on
the injured list that's not coming back anytime

1195
01:26:11.760 --> 01:26:15.840
soon with you know, and and
they've had a lot on there through the

1196
01:26:15.960 --> 01:26:21.920
season, and I'm not as on
the raise for the second half as as

1197
01:26:23.000 --> 01:26:26.640
they've looked for the first half.
I think the Orioles probably are going to

1198
01:26:26.720 --> 01:26:29.760
catch them, but that doesn't take
anything away from where they are right now.

1199
01:26:29.800 --> 01:26:31.479
They've they've been absolutely brilliant. They've
led in steels, they've led in

1200
01:26:31.560 --> 01:26:35.319
home runs at points, they've been
they've been absolutely everywhere they've they've they've been

1201
01:26:35.359 --> 01:26:39.239
a fantastic team and been really fun
to watch, and they've been playing with

1202
01:26:39.479 --> 01:26:42.560
with joy, and they've been playing
playing with excitement. As well. So,

1203
01:26:43.239 --> 01:26:45.399
um, did we think the Rais
would be good? Yeah, Hell,

1204
01:26:45.399 --> 01:26:46.560
we thought the Rays would be good. We didn't think they'd be this

1205
01:26:46.680 --> 01:26:50.319
good. Um. So, I
mean, yeah, they're they're They're in

1206
01:26:50.359 --> 01:26:54.359
an a in an a for me. They've they've done, They've done more

1207
01:26:54.439 --> 01:26:57.479
than we hope they would do.
I think that's going to slide off a

1208
01:26:57.520 --> 01:26:59.800
little bit in the second half.
And when I say a little bit,

1209
01:26:59.840 --> 01:27:02.239
I mean a lot. They need
they desperately need to go out and get

1210
01:27:02.279 --> 01:27:08.560
themselves some rental pitching. Yeah,
so I had them as I've given them

1211
01:27:08.600 --> 01:27:12.079
the s on the expect on the
performance, I think, being by now

1212
01:27:12.119 --> 01:27:15.560
that they are still one hundred win
on one hundred win projected record, which

1213
01:27:15.159 --> 01:27:18.840
I think it has to be up
there, and an A for expectations,

1214
01:27:19.640 --> 01:27:24.520
Darius, anything to add, No, I don't think so. I mean,

1215
01:27:24.600 --> 01:27:27.880
yeah, if you'd ask me six
weeks ago, obviously I would have

1216
01:27:27.920 --> 01:27:31.600
been more aggressive. I'm almost like
sort of a minus on the expectations now

1217
01:27:31.600 --> 01:27:34.800
because they are sliding back down towards
Yeah, I thought the Raids were going

1218
01:27:34.840 --> 01:27:39.319
to be a nineties something win team, and yeah, they're still on the

1219
01:27:39.399 --> 01:27:43.720
hundred at the moment. But the
way the trajectory is going, like preemptively

1220
01:27:44.199 --> 01:27:45.880
say, but yeah, based on
where they are right now, I think

1221
01:27:45.880 --> 01:27:50.319
it's it's still an A. Okay, so yeah, let's go with S

1222
01:27:50.439 --> 01:27:54.119
and an A. And as we've
talked about, the team that has kind

1223
01:27:54.159 --> 01:27:58.560
of caught up to them most is
not the Blue Jays or the Yankees or

1224
01:27:58.640 --> 01:28:00.960
even the Red Sox. It is
the Timore Orioles, who are now only

1225
01:28:01.000 --> 01:28:05.199
two games back with a fifty four
and thirty five records. There are actually

1226
01:28:05.279 --> 01:28:09.600
no games back and they're haven't lost
any more games, so it's all games

1227
01:28:09.640 --> 01:28:15.479
in hand, which is the difference
between these two teams right now. I'm

1228
01:28:15.520 --> 01:28:17.359
gonna have to be very careful about
how I say what I think the performance

1229
01:28:17.560 --> 01:28:20.960
and expectations would would be for this
team, but I do believe it's an

1230
01:28:21.159 --> 01:28:28.840
S for both of these things.
I think the Orioles have played beyond any

1231
01:28:28.960 --> 01:28:33.600
expectation. I think I would have
been one of maybe the champions of the

1232
01:28:33.800 --> 01:28:41.560
Baltimore of bottled this team or or
people with those plaqucards up at the start

1233
01:28:41.560 --> 01:28:45.680
of the season because they chose them
not to invest on pretty much any free

1234
01:28:45.720 --> 01:28:51.439
agent beyond what Kyle Gibson so it
was that their biggest free agent siding Aaron

1235
01:28:51.560 --> 01:28:55.800
Hicks. Yeah, it was Kyl
Gibson and Adam Frasier. Yeah. Yeah,

1236
01:28:57.600 --> 01:29:00.520
Well Frazier has pretty much done nothing, but Karl Gibson has actually been

1237
01:29:00.560 --> 01:29:05.880
a solid inning seater um for them. But then obviously that's that's where it's

1238
01:29:05.880 --> 01:29:11.600
come from. It's come from pretty
much solid people hitting across the ball,

1239
01:29:11.720 --> 01:29:16.840
not much bad stuff happening on that
regard, but then a phenomenal set of

1240
01:29:17.119 --> 01:29:20.520
probably a phenomenal ballpit. I think
that's the real thing that's kind of propelled

1241
01:29:20.560 --> 01:29:28.159
Baltimore to where they are right now. I just don't. I don't know.

1242
01:29:28.520 --> 01:29:30.600
I'm completely opposite to you, Rob, because I just I just don't

1243
01:29:30.640 --> 01:29:34.800
see it continuing. I just don't
see like I just think the starting pitching

1244
01:29:34.880 --> 01:29:40.760
is enough of an issue, but
it's gonna it's gonna break at some point.

1245
01:29:41.000 --> 01:29:45.560
And I just can't if you with
the likes of was it the Kyles

1246
01:29:45.600 --> 01:29:48.119
Gibson and Bradish and then what was
it like Tyler Wells and Dean Kramer,

1247
01:29:48.199 --> 01:29:51.159
I just don't. I just don't
really like it. You leave Tyler Wells

1248
01:29:51.199 --> 01:29:57.920
out of this. I think obviously
everybody was excited for Grace and Rodriguez,

1249
01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:03.560
but that kind of completely fell apart. I just without the starting pitching.

1250
01:30:03.720 --> 01:30:09.399
And obviously they could they've got the
prospect depth to trade for someone right now,

1251
01:30:10.039 --> 01:30:15.199
but we've also seen their reluctance to
do that. So I just don't

1252
01:30:15.279 --> 01:30:18.560
quite see this continuing on. But
still absolutely amazing performance. So for the

1253
01:30:18.600 --> 01:30:25.960
season, beyond expectation to where they
are right now, I don't think they

1254
01:30:26.079 --> 01:30:30.319
are like they are pretty much.
They're a little bit a little bit of

1255
01:30:30.439 --> 01:30:33.119
luck compared to what they run differential
wis, but that would have them what

1256
01:30:33.239 --> 01:30:38.159
at forty nine and forty or whatever. There's still a phenomenally good team here,

1257
01:30:38.319 --> 01:30:43.119
Darius. Do we how far do
we think this Orioles team can actually

1258
01:30:43.199 --> 01:30:46.279
go? Yeah? I mean it's
it's tricky because, yeah, it sort

1259
01:30:46.319 --> 01:30:48.800
of looks on the face of it
that they have been a bit lucky,

1260
01:30:48.960 --> 01:30:51.880
but then you look at the lineup. You know, Henderson started slow.

1261
01:30:53.319 --> 01:30:55.840
If you actually look at what you've
done over the like the last six weeks

1262
01:30:55.960 --> 01:30:59.840
or so, it looks like a
superstar. Rachman is a stud, Austin

1263
01:31:00.239 --> 01:31:03.000
is having a career year, and
then they're just like the prospects and they're

1264
01:31:03.039 --> 01:31:06.560
coming and they're like, you can't
believe how many guys they've got to come

1265
01:31:06.600 --> 01:31:12.039
in Westburg and Cowser, and you
know there's more on the way. It's

1266
01:31:12.079 --> 01:31:15.800
unbelievable that the hitting pipeline they've got
there. I do like Bradish and Wells,

1267
01:31:15.920 --> 01:31:19.279
to be honest. Yeah, I
don't think they're elite pictures. The

1268
01:31:19.439 --> 01:31:23.960
reports from Rodriguez and the miners have
been pretty good, so I think that's

1269
01:31:24.000 --> 01:31:26.159
going to make a big difference.
If he can come back up and be

1270
01:31:26.239 --> 01:31:30.319
the guy they thought you could be, then maybe we're talking about a different

1271
01:31:30.359 --> 01:31:31.760
team in the second half. But
I think you're right that, Yeah,

1272
01:31:31.880 --> 01:31:38.399
as currently constructed, you don't have
that much confidence in the rotation. Probably

1273
01:31:38.439 --> 01:31:42.000
they'll just find another couple of like
elite bullpen arms that have literally nothing,

1274
01:31:42.520 --> 01:31:45.359
which you know, maybe helps them
if they make it to the playoffs.

1275
01:31:45.079 --> 01:31:48.239
But yeah, i'd like to see
the make some admissions that said. I

1276
01:31:48.359 --> 01:31:56.199
think this is, you know,
absolutely completely beyond what anybody could have expected.

1277
01:31:56.239 --> 01:31:58.840
I think the consensus was they'll take
a step back from last season,

1278
01:31:58.840 --> 01:32:01.960
and they've gone in the office duration
and very well could win this division.

1279
01:32:02.159 --> 01:32:09.640
So I don't know, is this
is this an S expectations I gone double

1280
01:32:09.800 --> 01:32:15.159
s. Yeah, both expectations and
performance. And you know what, I

1281
01:32:15.920 --> 01:32:18.840
think they've been fairly lucky with the
injuries that they don't seem to be one

1282
01:32:18.840 --> 01:32:21.479
of the teams that have been worse
hit by it. Maybe that is because

1283
01:32:21.479 --> 01:32:26.039
it is you, But as Darius
said, we've still got this backlog of

1284
01:32:26.800 --> 01:32:29.600
of guys to come, which is
why I still think there's there's more to

1285
01:32:29.760 --> 01:32:31.840
it, and that they eat more
than most teams, I think, have

1286
01:32:31.960 --> 01:32:36.600
the ability to weather a couple more
more broken players and to come back with

1287
01:32:38.119 --> 01:32:42.359
you know, decent, decent upside
to it. So yeah, A plus

1288
01:32:42.439 --> 01:32:45.479
A plus because I don't understand your
your your ss but yeah, so with

1289
01:32:45.600 --> 01:32:50.600
you cool, Yeah, I think
they are. They've had the fourth least

1290
01:32:50.720 --> 01:32:57.560
warp missed by bps and calculations.
Yeah, so they have not not had

1291
01:32:57.600 --> 01:33:00.239
a lot of injuries. Who's who's
leading the who was basically even the least

1292
01:33:00.279 --> 01:33:05.560
injured so far the diving backs yea, which does explain a few things,

1293
01:33:05.640 --> 01:33:09.880
and who's the worst, who's the
worst? Just out of interest, we're

1294
01:33:09.880 --> 01:33:17.319
going to get to them. Yeah
by an absolutely mad for times and Stanton

1295
01:33:17.399 --> 01:33:19.600
or whatever. But yeah, yeah, I will get to them in a

1296
01:33:19.640 --> 01:33:24.000
second, but before then we have
to take our say hello to the neighbors

1297
01:33:24.039 --> 01:33:27.760
of the north, the looks Aronto
Blue Jays, who we have managed to

1298
01:33:28.359 --> 01:33:31.560
put themselves in in another solid position. They're fifteen forty one. The seven

1299
01:33:31.640 --> 01:33:33.920
games back are the raised, but
they are in one of the World Cup

1300
01:33:33.960 --> 01:33:41.880
positions right now. I feel bad
to say that this is like a BC,

1301
01:33:42.199 --> 01:33:45.439
but it's like I think some people
thought they were going to be amazing.

1302
01:33:45.239 --> 01:33:47.279
Yeah, I think some people thought
they were going to be amazing last

1303
01:33:47.319 --> 01:33:50.680
season, but I think I after
seeing their performance last season, I've kind

1304
01:33:50.720 --> 01:33:55.640
of took a step back. I'm
thinking they were going to be like this

1305
01:33:55.960 --> 01:34:00.920
ninety five hundred win juggernaut team that
I think some people thought two for last

1306
01:34:00.960 --> 01:34:05.640
season. So but it's been amazing. A good old chap Matman has been

1307
01:34:08.039 --> 01:34:11.760
amazing as well. Obviously, Gassman
is potentially the picture of the season so

1308
01:34:11.880 --> 01:34:15.600
far from the al perspective that there's
some solid discussion there, but he's definitely

1309
01:34:15.640 --> 01:34:18.520
been one of them. It's just
I think the same again. It's just

1310
01:34:18.640 --> 01:34:25.880
it's the depth that's not quite given
what you would hope for, Like Danny

1311
01:34:25.960 --> 01:34:30.159
Jansen, and Alejandro Kirk are not
mashing the same way that they did before.

1312
01:34:30.319 --> 01:34:38.159
Dalton Varshow isn't an amazing elite hitter. He's still phenomenal defensive player or

1313
01:34:38.199 --> 01:34:44.319
whatever, but he's looked under like
Bigio I think has been pretty poor when

1314
01:34:44.319 --> 01:34:47.039
he's had some playing times. So
they've done good, they've just not been

1315
01:34:47.880 --> 01:34:51.680
amazing. So do they do they
sit in that that category is over saying

1316
01:34:51.800 --> 01:34:57.439
or it's just it's just a BC. It's just what we expected. But

1317
01:34:57.680 --> 01:35:00.560
in any other division and people are
people are excited, you know if they

1318
01:35:00.800 --> 01:35:03.239
are in the central and this would
be silly, wouldn't it Like they might

1319
01:35:03.279 --> 01:35:09.560
have absolutely Yeah, yeah, they
are the ultimate victim of the division they're

1320
01:35:09.600 --> 01:35:14.199
in. Uh, you know,
they're behind the raising the Orioles who have

1321
01:35:14.279 --> 01:35:18.960
had had very unpredictably good starts.
Um. I think I think we all

1322
01:35:19.079 --> 01:35:23.319
think of the Blue Jays is not
doing as well as we perhaps thought they

1323
01:35:23.359 --> 01:35:26.960
would do. But they're they're doing
just fine. They really if you take

1324
01:35:27.000 --> 01:35:30.359
them in there in isolation, they
are doing just fine. I almost bang

1325
01:35:30.399 --> 01:35:32.800
on where you sort of thought they'd
be. Really, I'm not I'm not

1326
01:35:32.880 --> 01:35:36.640
disappointed in them. I think,
Yeah, they're doing. I think the

1327
01:35:36.720 --> 01:35:40.640
sense of disappointment comes from the fact
that people just thought that they were going

1328
01:35:40.680 --> 01:35:44.760
to be a gummernaut by this point, with lad and with Bishett and you

1329
01:35:44.840 --> 01:35:46.680
know, all these young guys they
had. Yeah, and you know,

1330
01:35:46.840 --> 01:35:53.399
maybe maybe if Manoah doesn't absolutely collapse, then they're much closer to the division

1331
01:35:53.520 --> 01:35:57.479
lead than they are right now.
But it's that potentially the most shocking thing

1332
01:35:57.840 --> 01:36:01.000
in baseball this season that it's not
just like one or two bad games.

1333
01:36:01.119 --> 01:36:08.560
It's been like consistent bad performance from
from Manoah compared to like where he was

1334
01:36:08.840 --> 01:36:15.640
last season. I think it is
one of the most precipitous declines. Yeah,

1335
01:36:15.760 --> 01:36:18.119
I think, you know, there
were a few warning flags that maybe

1336
01:36:18.159 --> 01:36:23.119
he wasn't going to quite live up
to some of his run prevention numbers,

1337
01:36:23.239 --> 01:36:28.039
but this is yeah, I mean
this, this did happen to Royal Day

1338
01:36:28.039 --> 01:36:30.119
obviously, had a few few people
have brought that up that they would just

1339
01:36:30.239 --> 01:36:32.800
turn into a total mess mechanically and
they had to send him down. But

1340
01:36:33.479 --> 01:36:36.720
yeah, you know, they kind
of fixed Barrios. And I thought if

1341
01:36:36.960 --> 01:36:39.880
that if you told people at the
start of the season, you'd be like,

1342
01:36:39.960 --> 01:36:41.920
yeah, the Jays are going to
be going to be great this year,

1343
01:36:42.119 --> 01:36:44.840
and it's sort of been more than
offset by the fact that Manoah is

1344
01:36:45.159 --> 01:36:48.239
tanked. Basically almost every start is
made for them. Yeah, you've had

1345
01:36:48.319 --> 01:36:55.279
Bassett and Facucci providing solid numbers for
what should be like your fourth and fifth

1346
01:36:55.319 --> 01:37:00.199
starter. If I if you if
Alete Manoah was anything close to League Ridge,

1347
01:37:00.199 --> 01:37:02.560
I would be saying that like this, like Toronto have a five,

1348
01:37:02.920 --> 01:37:08.199
like where a lot of teams barely
have two or three. Like I don't

1349
01:37:08.239 --> 01:37:14.199
think the bullpen is great either.
Likes I have concerned Romana is good,

1350
01:37:15.239 --> 01:37:18.159
but yeah, I have have concerns
about some of the bullpen alarms. What's

1351
01:37:18.279 --> 01:37:24.159
the No, I'm not going to
get his name. Who's the one that's

1352
01:37:24.199 --> 01:37:31.039
come out of semi nowhere as it
miser Maser may Tim miser yea um,

1353
01:37:31.319 --> 01:37:36.119
but yeah, I don't know,
Like no persons looked pretty good at times,

1354
01:37:36.239 --> 01:37:42.439
but he's had his health woes and
consistency issues, and yeah, I

1355
01:37:42.520 --> 01:37:46.520
don't know. I'm not sure it's
quite as reliable as you want. All

1356
01:37:46.600 --> 01:37:49.159
right, I think we're both all
sold all soul. Three of us are

1357
01:37:49.199 --> 01:37:54.239
sold on that just being a BC
or it's just it's just what we anticipated.

1358
01:37:55.000 --> 01:37:59.800
B minus C minus. Rob's even
being being a little bit harsher.

1359
01:37:59.840 --> 01:38:02.840
I can't give them a B minus
for an eighty nine kind of like win

1360
01:38:02.960 --> 01:38:06.880
record. I think that would be
a bit ash what we've given to everybody

1361
01:38:06.920 --> 01:38:11.600
else in similar sort of win records. I'm just really struggling to watch Kevin

1362
01:38:11.680 --> 01:38:15.520
kim I have a wonderful season,
so I really don't want to score them

1363
01:38:15.560 --> 01:38:18.920
too high. Dude, viewers at
home contell, but I am wearing Michael

1364
01:38:18.960 --> 01:38:24.199
Brantley T shirt, so I can
feel you're some player that you kind of

1365
01:38:24.720 --> 01:38:27.479
very much was beloved to see yourself
do well for some of the teams.

1366
01:38:27.760 --> 01:38:30.119
Heartbreaking when it's a team that you
don't really want to see do well.

1367
01:38:30.000 --> 01:38:34.359
Yep, okay, BC minus.
How's that? Okay, I'll take that.

1368
01:38:38.000 --> 01:38:43.960
Um. The New York Yankees,
I think the one word to describe

1369
01:38:44.000 --> 01:38:53.279
the season is injuries, but it
is also like nobody but it's I think

1370
01:38:53.279 --> 01:38:55.800
the other I kind of put a
piece of about this earlier in the season,

1371
01:38:55.800 --> 01:38:59.880
but it's also like nobody's like,
who would these people that are get

1372
01:39:00.279 --> 01:39:06.079
time? But the New York Yankees
is utterly unbelievable. From this team that

1373
01:39:06.199 --> 01:39:13.359
is supposedly regarded as kind of like
the juggernaut of this sport, like the

1374
01:39:13.520 --> 01:39:16.399
Yankees are, well, you could
say they are the man united at the

1375
01:39:16.399 --> 01:39:20.000
sport. They were good fifteen twenty
years ago when I've been a pretty nath

1376
01:39:21.000 --> 01:39:25.479
even that they've managed to maintain their
global brand for an entire for the entire

1377
01:39:25.560 --> 01:39:30.439
time, they're just a bit,
just just nothing. But when Willie Calhoun

1378
01:39:31.039 --> 01:39:34.439
has been getting time, when FRANKI. Corderiu has been getting time, when

1379
01:39:35.119 --> 01:39:40.199
Jake Bowers has been getting time,
when Billy McKinley has been getting time,

1380
01:39:40.239 --> 01:39:44.000
when Greg Allen has been getting time, Like I'm sorry, there's a multiple

1381
01:39:44.119 --> 01:39:47.600
rejects from Cleveland on that team there
that are like if you're if you're prettyeople

1382
01:39:47.640 --> 01:39:51.000
that Cleveland have decided that are not
worth while their time, what effort,

1383
01:39:51.119 --> 01:39:56.920
and you've decided to roll them back
out again. Like the thing is,

1384
01:39:58.720 --> 01:40:02.560
since Judge went there, Bowers is
basically the Yankees best here. Like that

1385
01:40:03.640 --> 01:40:06.399
you need to know about the Yankees
offense, that that's that's how things are

1386
01:40:06.399 --> 01:40:12.399
going over there. They got they
got nothing out there. It's like players

1387
01:40:12.479 --> 01:40:18.840
like Vulpa is good defensively Agassioca and
Travina were both absolutely phenomenal defensive catches,

1388
01:40:18.880 --> 01:40:26.079
but are not that great with the
bat like this. You look at like

1389
01:40:26.159 --> 01:40:30.640
the WRC plus that they're putting up
outside of judge, it's awful. Like

1390
01:40:31.560 --> 01:40:41.680
Stanton's I knowed he's he's he's looking
close to being a freaking Galusian lightning instead

1391
01:40:41.680 --> 01:40:45.800
of a Stantonian blas. I mean, Josh Donaldson's line is like my favorite

1392
01:40:45.840 --> 01:40:47.840
thing in baseball this season though,
have you seen Josh donaldson line? Robin,

1393
01:40:48.560 --> 01:40:53.439
No, Josh Donaldson has has ten
home runs in one hundred and twelve

1394
01:40:53.439 --> 01:40:57.279
plate appearances, right, I hear
that, Like that sounds great. He's

1395
01:40:57.319 --> 01:41:00.760
got a zero point eight three babbit
so he's slashing one fifty two, two

1396
01:41:00.880 --> 01:41:05.840
thirty two, four sixty five.
But you never see like this is not

1397
01:41:05.920 --> 01:41:10.960
a line that people have ever.
Yeah. I saw someone saying that he

1398
01:41:11.079 --> 01:41:14.680
had the least number of hits to
a ten home run, to get ten

1399
01:41:14.760 --> 01:41:18.800
home runs like in a season,
I believe it. Yeah, And like

1400
01:41:19.079 --> 01:41:24.479
lemayheu is a horrible liability at this
point, doesn't he mean, What's what's

1401
01:41:24.520 --> 01:41:28.000
going on there? I mean,
yeah, Donaldson has as a fifteen hits

1402
01:41:28.079 --> 01:41:33.640
and ten of them a home runs
or nothing. Yeah, le mayheu looks

1403
01:41:33.880 --> 01:41:40.239
pretty pretty cooked. Yeah, it's
it's nothing. Really. I think you

1404
01:41:40.319 --> 01:41:42.760
know, Bobay at least is young, and you can say, well,

1405
01:41:42.760 --> 01:41:45.920
he's learning, and I think he
has cut the strikeouts down and development is

1406
01:41:45.960 --> 01:41:49.000
coming. But you look at Stanton
and Donaldson and lemahere and you're like,

1407
01:41:49.279 --> 01:41:55.000
I don't think these guys are liable
to get much better. Yeah, yeah,

1408
01:41:55.039 --> 01:41:57.640
I guess obviously injuries aside because Judge
spent some time out. But if

1409
01:41:57.640 --> 01:42:01.199
you told me Judge was hitting like
one nine w LC plus Garrett Cole had

1410
01:42:01.239 --> 01:42:04.880
a below three era, I'd be
thinking, all right, the Yankees are

1411
01:42:04.920 --> 01:42:12.159
having a good season. But the
Yankees are having an okay season. I

1412
01:42:12.199 --> 01:42:17.640
think it's under expectation just because we
expect so much from the Yanks and they're

1413
01:42:17.680 --> 01:42:23.319
sating fourth. It looks a lot
worse than than their records is. I

1414
01:42:23.399 --> 01:42:28.399
think they probably like they'd be Yeah, I have them as a BD like

1415
01:42:28.640 --> 01:42:32.000
for b B minus a performance.
But like if you like showed somebody who

1416
01:42:32.119 --> 01:42:34.840
was on the field for the Yankees, it would be like, wow,

1417
01:42:34.880 --> 01:42:39.319
they're doing pretty good. But from
a preseason perspective, you're like, this

1418
01:42:39.439 --> 01:42:43.960
is terrible. Yeah, so it's
good to be minus D. I think

1419
01:42:44.000 --> 01:42:47.359
obviously seeing what we might get from
Rhodon for the rest of the season.

1420
01:42:48.640 --> 01:42:53.520
Obviously there have been some great things
that have said. Cole has been amazing

1421
01:42:54.439 --> 01:43:00.439
play homes and I think it's been
phenomenal once again, and the others have

1422
01:43:00.560 --> 01:43:05.159
done done fine in the bulpin.
Obviously, it would be kind of rebiss

1423
01:43:05.239 --> 01:43:09.680
not to talk about the fact that
Domingahan did throw a perfect game. Obviously

1424
01:43:09.720 --> 01:43:12.520
we all need to put into context
the things that he has done off the

1425
01:43:12.600 --> 01:43:15.119
field, so you're fully aware that
he is somebody who has suspended for domestic

1426
01:43:15.199 --> 01:43:19.760
violence and has been suspected multiple times
for sticky stuff. So take all that

1427
01:43:19.840 --> 01:43:25.119
information as you want to go with
it. I feel a very interesting scene

1428
01:43:25.159 --> 01:43:29.920
that the lack of kind of push
by MLB after like the day kind of

1429
01:43:30.079 --> 01:43:32.560
very much feels that they kind of
like perfect game and then very much went

1430
01:43:32.760 --> 01:43:35.399
and now we don't care, Whereas
I think if somebody else that's are in

1431
01:43:35.439 --> 01:43:39.359
the perfect Game, they might not
shut up about it for a little bit

1432
01:43:39.439 --> 01:43:43.359
longer. But we shall move on
to the final team that we have managed

1433
01:43:43.359 --> 01:43:45.600
to avoid talking about for close to
an hour and a half or if not

1434
01:43:45.760 --> 01:43:50.680
more. The Boston Red Sox.
I'm tired, sorry the Boston Red Sox,

1435
01:43:50.840 --> 01:43:56.920
who are forty eight and forty three, but our bottom of their division.

1436
01:43:58.239 --> 01:44:02.039
This is I think an improvement of
what we were anticipating. I kind

1437
01:44:02.039 --> 01:44:08.640
of had as a'm a CB,
you're a CB CB. I think I

1438
01:44:08.840 --> 01:44:13.079
B have them at B minus and
then B on sinc. Obviously they're above

1439
01:44:13.119 --> 01:44:15.399
five hundred teams, so I think
giving a C would be a would be

1440
01:44:15.479 --> 01:44:21.600
a taed hash. But yeah,
I thought they'd be above five hundred,

1441
01:44:21.720 --> 01:44:26.840
but probably not this far above five
hundreds. So yeah, I don't know.

1442
01:44:30.159 --> 01:44:32.560
C plus minus C plus B minus
feels like to me, yeah,

1443
01:44:32.760 --> 01:44:39.319
okay, you know, like they've
had some success stories, right like James

1444
01:44:39.359 --> 01:44:43.199
Paxton being back is pretty cool.
Yeah, Brian Baio looks great, but

1445
01:44:43.359 --> 01:44:46.239
then it's like fine shot Cara Chris
sails her like, well, okay,

1446
01:44:46.279 --> 01:44:49.680
we saw that coming. Oh they've
been an absolute mess at shortstop. Well

1447
01:44:49.760 --> 01:44:54.800
yeah, everybody saw that coming,
Like the holes were easy to see and

1448
01:44:55.039 --> 01:44:58.560
they have happened. So yeah,
well, John's gonna tell us if we

1449
01:44:58.560 --> 01:45:02.079
don't talk about how great they're outfield
has been offensively, Yashiida looks great for

1450
01:45:02.159 --> 01:45:09.039
Dugo has been great. Dan Duran
Duran Duran, Yeah, fantastic. Yeah,

1451
01:45:09.119 --> 01:45:14.399
but yeah, it's it's very incomplete
team. I feel like I think

1452
01:45:14.439 --> 01:45:17.960
they were in a really weird position
because of who the Bossom Ducks are and

1453
01:45:18.079 --> 01:45:21.720
fact that I think Pangras still has
them as a thirty percent chance of making

1454
01:45:21.760 --> 01:45:26.920
the playoffs. Like what happens to
them in the next two weeks really decides

1455
01:45:27.039 --> 01:45:30.199
what they should do at the trade
did because I think they've got pieces which

1456
01:45:30.239 --> 01:45:38.239
could they could get some good value
you for. But you can't really trade

1457
01:45:38.319 --> 01:45:43.319
if you're above five hundred and still
have a reasonable chance of making the especially

1458
01:45:43.359 --> 01:45:46.399
when you're the Bostom Red Socks,
like Michael Michaelis did it last season.

1459
01:45:46.479 --> 01:45:50.439
But it's a bit different for the
Oils. I guess, yeah, they

1460
01:45:50.479 --> 01:45:55.279
could, it wasn't it wasn't their
competitive schedule window or whatever, but like,

1461
01:45:56.319 --> 01:45:59.279
yeah, yeah, the issue is
that there aren't four wild cards,

1462
01:45:59.359 --> 01:46:02.640
because I do think that's a pretty
good chance that they remain better than whoever

1463
01:46:02.680 --> 01:46:06.800
Wednesday out Central. But yeah,
I mean they're only two games out.

1464
01:46:06.880 --> 01:46:10.920
I mean, it takes one team
to take a bit of a step back

1465
01:46:10.960 --> 01:46:14.680
and they're they're in the postseason,
so they can't be set as surely.

1466
01:46:14.880 --> 01:46:18.960
Yeah, if you're if you're looking
at that Yankees team especially and yeah thinking

1467
01:46:19.039 --> 01:46:24.039
that maybe yeah Baltimore is going to
fall off or something like, you know,

1468
01:46:24.159 --> 01:46:27.800
there's there's opportunities here right now,
but as you say, Russ,

1469
01:46:27.880 --> 01:46:30.920
if it goes badly in the next
couple of weeks, then maybe they won't

1470
01:46:30.920 --> 01:46:38.199
think there are Okay, so that
completes are expectations and our review of the

1471
01:46:38.279 --> 01:46:41.960
season so far. I hope you
we've all enjoyed, are not so quick

1472
01:46:42.479 --> 01:46:45.000
dart through. I kind of thought
when we were going to do this,

1473
01:46:45.119 --> 01:46:46.720
maybe we should have split A L
and N L in two separate occations,

1474
01:46:46.800 --> 01:46:54.039
but who knows, I might do
that in postum. No, obviously the

1475
01:46:55.079 --> 01:46:59.520
m Friday, which is tomorrow,
baseball is MLB is full is back.

1476
01:46:59.560 --> 01:47:04.000
I don't belie gave start again.
If you have been remiss and I've been

1477
01:47:04.039 --> 01:47:06.920
missing out on baseball, I do
very much recommend that you actually check some

1478
01:47:08.000 --> 01:47:11.880
of the softball which is going on
right now. The gb women's team are

1479
01:47:11.960 --> 01:47:16.159
taking part in the Baseball World Cup, the Women's Softball World Cup. Sorry,

1480
01:47:17.079 --> 01:47:20.520
they are currently three and o going
through their first three group stages,

1481
01:47:20.560 --> 01:47:24.880
which involves win against the Netherlands team
which is ranked ninth in the world.

1482
01:47:24.880 --> 01:47:29.079
Would you be a ranked fourteenth or
sixteenth something around that and against Chinese type

1483
01:47:29.159 --> 01:47:31.439
which are ranked third in the world. This is all off the back of

1484
01:47:32.239 --> 01:47:39.319
Georgina Corrix pitching. She has got
the triple as she got She got the

1485
01:47:39.399 --> 01:47:44.000
triple crown in ncable A Softball this
season for basically having the most strikeouts,

1486
01:47:44.079 --> 01:47:47.560
the lowest DRAA and the most wins
in college shopball this year. She is

1487
01:47:47.600 --> 01:47:51.800
a phenomenal pitcher. So this is
something you really should try and check out

1488
01:47:51.800 --> 01:47:56.880
if you can. Why it'd almost
add matters to us. It's like a

1489
01:47:56.920 --> 01:48:00.479
baseball thing and a baseball podcast.
Is softball a baseball You get treat it

1490
01:48:00.520 --> 01:48:02.520
as the same. Here in the
UK, we get our funding kind of

1491
01:48:02.560 --> 01:48:08.479
treated the same way. If baseball
softball UK and if this women's team looks

1492
01:48:08.520 --> 01:48:12.960
like they're good and potentially come being
an Olympic medal team, that's there's the

1493
01:48:13.000 --> 01:48:15.880
possibility that this team they could obviously
be baseball on softball back in the Olympics

1494
01:48:15.920 --> 01:48:21.000
in twenty twenty eight. This is
massive for funding for sports in this country.

1495
01:48:21.079 --> 01:48:26.680
So obviously beyond your base level of
patriotism of going out of supporting GB

1496
01:48:26.800 --> 01:48:30.359
teams in softball and baseball, this
is really really a big one for on

1497
01:48:30.479 --> 01:48:34.359
top of the what GB did in
the World Baseball Classic so far earlier on

1498
01:48:34.439 --> 01:48:38.319
this season. If the women's team, women's softball teams to phenomenal here,

1499
01:48:38.359 --> 01:48:45.720
this could be amazing for baseball going
forward. Right, So do you watch?

1500
01:48:47.479 --> 01:48:50.920
Do watch if you can the games
of beaver In. They're playing in

1501
01:48:51.000 --> 01:48:55.239
Dublin, So any of our Irish
listeners get out there, or if you

1502
01:48:55.279 --> 01:48:58.039
want to get a cheap flight out
to Dublin for the weekend and go watch

1503
01:48:58.079 --> 01:49:00.880
them softball. But do you know
a couple of people who have basically done

1504
01:49:00.920 --> 01:49:02.800
that, because it's like forty pounds
for a ticket, So get out there

1505
01:49:02.800 --> 01:49:05.800
for the weekend if you've got no
plans. Right, otherwise we are obviously

1506
01:49:05.880 --> 01:49:10.439
bufflets and nerds. Rob. I'm
assuming you don't have any writing, Darius,

1507
01:49:10.479 --> 01:49:14.640
and assuming you've got writing for BP
coming about stolen bases, which is

1508
01:49:14.640 --> 01:49:20.760
always the thing. You're great,
Thank you for listening. Hopefully next week

1509
01:49:20.840 --> 01:49:27.640
we shall be back, hopefully with
a prospects and draft fased focused podcasts.

1510
01:49:27.720 --> 01:49:31.039
We do have some an external guests
lined up to talk us through that because

1511
01:49:31.039 --> 01:49:33.880
some of us are very interested in
what we've seen from the latest draft and

1512
01:49:33.960 --> 01:49:38.640
how some of the prospects and minor
league baseball I've been playing out this year,

1513
01:49:38.680 --> 01:49:41.199
So those interested in that please do
listen into next week