Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds at Baseball podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am your host today, Rob Rivera,
Speaker 1: and we're here today to fulfill a very special annual
Speaker 1: rite of passage where the backup guys of a niche
Speaker 1: podcast predict a bunch of numbers over an unnecessarily long duration. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is time to gaze into our crystal balls and
Speaker 1: prognosticate for the twenty twenty five Batflips and Nerds B
Speaker 1: Team Predictions podcast. Could probably some echo in there, if yeah,
Speaker 1: someone even crank the echo up, joining me as always
Speaker 1: are right pair of tetas. Firstly resident clairvoyant master of
Speaker 1: the website. We got Gavlong. So Gav, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well?
Speaker 1: How are you not bad? What form of mysticism are
Speaker 1: you using to put a prediction your your numbers today?
Speaker 2: It's I think it's the sort of system that BP
Speaker 2: would like to have, So you know, it's I can't
Speaker 2: get divulge how I've come to these figures, but.
Speaker 1: Okay, lovely and secondly possessed by the spirits of x wOBA,
Speaker 1: it's Russell Esum. How you doing. I'm doing good? Rob
Speaker 1: I'm doing good, and have you had a particular I
Speaker 1: mean usually, of course Russell's been like the numbers are
Speaker 1: raining down the back of his eyes like the matrix.
Speaker 1: But there's been a special way of you predicting these
Speaker 1: this year or have you just gone with feels like
Speaker 1: I clearly have.
Speaker 3: There's some effort and then there's feels on who I
Speaker 3: think are basically going to do bad and then sell
Speaker 3: all of their players. That's that's my feel's aspects of
Speaker 3: I've got to work out who I think is gonna
Speaker 3: sell off halfway through the season when they're season has
Speaker 3: been met so far.
Speaker 1: Wow, there's a lot deeper than I've been thinking. Excellent, Okay, right,
Speaker 1: so we all know this is a prediction podcast. These
Speaker 1: things tend to run extremely long, So well done. Strap in.
Speaker 1: You're in for a long ride with us. What we're
Speaker 1: going to do then is we're going to go this year.
Speaker 1: We're going to go division by division, and Russell has
Speaker 1: kindly produced some graphics for us, which through the magic
Speaker 1: of the internet, if you are watching on YouTube, you
Speaker 1: should if you look above our heads. It is above
Speaker 1: our heads, right Russ.
Speaker 3: Well, that will decide when I actually put the video together.
Speaker 1: Next to or below our heads is a graphic now
Speaker 1: which will not only display the predictions we've all made
Speaker 1: and then how we we've agreed, but also many of
Speaker 1: you who are looking and may have seen this for
Speaker 1: the first time, is our brand new logo, which is
Speaker 1: our rotating bat for backflips and nerds. I was just
Speaker 1: keen to point this out quickly here on the B
Speaker 1: Team podcast before the A Team got a chance to
Speaker 1: do it, so look and reveler. Our new wonderful logo
Speaker 1: is all a bit of a partnership with the wider
Speaker 1: MLB community in the UK, so look out for a
Speaker 1: bit more of that coming soon. But yeah, so you should.
Speaker 1: If if this is work, you'll probably be able to
Speaker 1: see it. If not, feel free to listen along. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna do anything on the screen that you can't
Speaker 1: normally have from the standard podcast format. So as well
Speaker 1: as having our normal predictions, given that Gav is a
Speaker 1: bit of an Internet edge lord, I'm a man child
Speaker 1: and Russe always has to be right, we are building
Speaker 1: in some tiebreakers this year. So what we're going to
Speaker 1: do is we're going to use a random stat or
Speaker 1: something about a player and then pick a random player
Speaker 1: from the team that we are disagreeing on. That is
Speaker 1: going to be how we decide whose prediction we go with.
Speaker 1: Gav shaking his head already because he knows this is
Speaker 1: all going to go horribly, horribly wrong. So Russell is
Speaker 1: going to be the master of the graphics today. So Russell,
Speaker 1: given that we are kind of led by that, which
Speaker 1: division are we going to start with today?
Speaker 3: Let's start with a level of mediocrity. So let's go
Speaker 3: for the NL Central.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's start with Gav. Gav, can you take
Speaker 1: us down? You're running order for the NL Central and
Speaker 1: what you put in there? And why?
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly you just want the number of winds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just give us the winds and then you know
Speaker 1: if there's anything you want to say about it, and
Speaker 1: then we can come back at you.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I have the it's pretty horrible division, but
Speaker 2: that's not news to anyone. I say, having seen the
Speaker 2: Cubs over the last couple of days, I have knocked
Speaker 2: them down a couple of winds now, because well, they
Speaker 2: didn't win them. So I've got the Milwaukee Brewers with
Speaker 2: eighty four Chicago Cubs were eighty three. Cardinals with eighty
Speaker 2: Reds with seventy nine and the Pirates with seventy three.
Speaker 2: So the way I came about that is the Cubs, yep.
Speaker 2: I love the signing of Tucker, and it's pretty steady lineup,
Speaker 2: but I'm not sure what happens with their rotation if
Speaker 2: any of the top three get injured. And as we've
Speaker 2: seen with so many teams, the top three are getting
Speaker 2: injured or three pitchers are getting injured. But it's such
Speaker 2: a winnable division. The Brewers, I think I always underestimate
Speaker 2: how good they're going to be, and yet again I
Speaker 2: am underestimating how good they're going to be. I think
Speaker 2: they had ninety three wins last time, and I've put
Speaker 2: them down for eighty four, and really all they've lost
Speaker 2: is Adamas and Burns. I say, only you know pretty
Speaker 2: two great players. They will get back Woodruff sometime. I
Speaker 2: don't know Mitchell and Hoskins. They could be the difference
Speaker 2: between them being an eighty four win team or being
Speaker 2: whatever the other projection systems had them for, which I
Speaker 2: think was higher. Who else we got Pirates? I don't
Speaker 2: know if I can bother talk about them. I don't
Speaker 2: understand how one team can be so so good at
Speaker 2: pitching and then just so dreadful at hitting in that
Speaker 2: they have such a good rotation, and they've got Harrington
Speaker 2: and Chandler in the wings waiting to come through. But
Speaker 2: I don't know, is Andrew Cutching their third best sitter?
Speaker 2: Maybe he is some Lewis Cardinals. They could be a
Speaker 2: playoff team, or they could be absolutely dreadful.
Speaker 1: I just don't know what Russ, Russ, Russ, you're countering
Speaker 1: already on the on the Cardinals.
Speaker 3: I literally do not understand how anybody can think this
Speaker 3: team is going to win anything.
Speaker 1: Like, what did they add?
Speaker 2: They had such a good team, No, they don't.
Speaker 3: They were crap last year and they added Bill mat
Speaker 3: On what what what are you expecting to actually do
Speaker 3: this year?
Speaker 1: They were awful? Awful again.
Speaker 2: No, there is so much potential there going to be magic.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, you've.
Speaker 2: Got Walker and Gorman and Herrera, Mason, win.
Speaker 3: Woman basically failed to show their talent already. So why
Speaker 3: would together even younger than you? Russell, Yeah, that's not
Speaker 3: particularly hard. I would tell you that probably, like the
Speaker 3: major leaguers are younger than me.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not saying they will be because I'm giving
Speaker 2: them a losing record, and what I'm saying is that
Speaker 2: they have so much potential that they could be a
Speaker 2: playoff team. I don't understand about the Aeronado fiasco, and
Speaker 2: I figure that because they're changing changing ownership, they won't
Speaker 2: spend any money or even if they're they're or thereabouts,
Speaker 2: so I won't go for it.
Speaker 1: Have I?
Speaker 2: Oh, No, that the Cincinnati Reds, So that the other
Speaker 2: team you.
Speaker 1: Haven't spoken about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what I like about them is Elie Delacruz
Speaker 2: and Terry Francona and that's it. No, Matt McLain loves
Speaker 2: they wayfully underperformed last year. Yeah, Matt McCain could be great.
Speaker 2: Spencer Seer might not be as injured as he is,
Speaker 2: but Hunter Green maybe he is a MVP caliber. Maybe
Speaker 2: Nicolodolo it's going to stay healthy. Singer and Martinez, they're
Speaker 2: both pretty steady guys. But it does seem like one
Speaker 2: stud and eight average players.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, they've they've certainly got also around written
Speaker 1: all over the team, haven't they. We're with with the Reds.
Speaker 1: I think we're playing around with the middle third of
Speaker 1: predictions rather than the absolute bargain bottom or the or
Speaker 1: the top end like that. They're not going to win
Speaker 1: a hundred games, then they're not going to lose a
Speaker 1: hundred games, but they're certainly probably not going to come
Speaker 1: anywhere near near fifty to fifty either, So they're going
Speaker 1: to be that sort of really dirgy bottom third without
Speaker 1: being without being dreadful. I kind of I kind of
Speaker 1: agree with you on the Reds there. I still think
Speaker 1: you've got them a bit high, if I'm honest, really, Russ,
Speaker 1: what have you got?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we start on the like, I think the
Speaker 3: team they have right now could probably win eighty games,
Speaker 3: but I think they'll be in a position come pretty
Speaker 3: like the end of like mideedon trading and the trade
Speaker 3: and deadline, and they'll turn some people over. So that's
Speaker 3: why I've knocked them down a few things. Same with
Speaker 3: the Cardinals. I don't think they'll be in contention, so
Speaker 3: I think they'll get rid of some more people who
Speaker 3: will get them some prospects and come through. I just
Speaker 3: don't see any kind of like high things from that Pirates.
Speaker 3: I don't think they'll do that. Haven't done that in ages.
Speaker 3: They don't think it's really the their of their mo
Speaker 3: Like you say, great pitching can't produce a bat. Frankly,
Speaker 3: for me, Gav, that's just basically Cleveland all over again.
Speaker 3: And that's how I know exactly how it works. You
Speaker 3: have different people in quite frankly different people who and
Speaker 3: different coaches are there to basically coach pitching and they're
Speaker 3: to coach hitting, and well, for most teams they've got
Speaker 3: one and knock or the other. So and the Brewers
Speaker 3: and the Cubs at the top. Like, if I'm honest,
Speaker 3: I got no idea. Like we all underestimated the Brewers
Speaker 3: last year. We're all thought that like losing counsel would
Speaker 3: probably have some impact on there, but they kind of
Speaker 3: showed that they kind of know how to get things done.
Speaker 3: But obviously the Cubs have made the signings in this division,
Speaker 3: they've made the trades in this division, which make you
Speaker 3: think that they are better. But like once again, it's
Speaker 3: still a bit mare. It's still kind of a who's
Speaker 3: coming down to it. The fact that hey, John Bertie
Speaker 3: is in their starting nine is not as not a
Speaker 3: good sign as far as I'm concerned, even if he
Speaker 3: went like three for four today whatever and had two
Speaker 3: stolen bases like. I don't think that's a good sign
Speaker 3: that you've got a well fleshed out team.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's all very very fair kind of channeling,
Speaker 1: very very similar most of the way through the division there.
Speaker 1: I would say I'm probably a little bit higher on
Speaker 1: the Pirates than you, you guy us guide getting all
Speaker 1: fruity early. A little bit higher on the Pirates. I
Speaker 1: feel like they've got that up and coming, and every
Speaker 1: year there's a team that is a little bit of
Speaker 1: ahead of where we think they're going to be. And
Speaker 1: I think we can all kind of generally agree that
Speaker 1: finally the Pirates are about start digging their way out
Speaker 1: this rut. They got the pitching coming along now, and
Speaker 1: it's starting to look like they're not going to be
Speaker 1: absolutely dreadful, And I think this could be that year
Speaker 1: where they sort of catch and they start going a
Speaker 1: little bit before maybe next year they'll be a bit
Speaker 1: of a fall to sort of reset them a little bit,
Speaker 1: which is why I've got them. I've got them a
Speaker 1: little bit higher, I mean, not dramatically higher. Russ. I
Speaker 1: think you're very very similar to me on the Pirates.
Speaker 1: From seventy nine to eighty two, Ish Gav considerably less Cubs.
Speaker 1: I think the fact we've seen two games of the
Speaker 1: season so far in Japan and we've seen the Cubs
Speaker 1: lose them both, it really does hurt it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think consciously or subconsciously, I think there has been
Speaker 1: a little bit of a prediction dip already knowing that
Speaker 1: they're essentially starting the season zero and two is what
Speaker 1: it will feel to most of us, so perhaps have
Speaker 1: been a little bit stingy on them there. So running
Speaker 1: down my order then, so I had the Cardinals topping
Speaker 1: the division on eighty six because there's always that team.
Speaker 1: There's always that team goes on a on a tear,
Speaker 1: and you know what Gav is right, there is a
Speaker 1: lot of players on that team who've got some real
Speaker 1: potential or some recent success. You know what could Aaronado
Speaker 1: be if he has that bounce back season. You know
Speaker 1: that that could really be a bit of change. And
Speaker 1: I think there's room for the in these predictions for
Speaker 1: a couple of teams to just come out of nowhere
Speaker 1: and and really really surprise us, and the Cardinals really
Speaker 1: could be that team. So I've got the Cardinals winning
Speaker 1: the division in eighty six I've got the Brewers coming
Speaker 1: second on eighty five. Irates are third on eighty two,
Speaker 1: with the Cubs languishing way down where expected in fourth
Speaker 1: place with eighty and then the Reds being a bit
Speaker 1: of a dirt at the bottom on sixty eight. So
Speaker 1: let's I mean, let's start start with a couple that
Speaker 1: we all seem to agree on. Looking at the Cubs,
Speaker 1: we're all there or there about your Russ eighty four,
Speaker 1: Gave eighty three and I've got eighty. I'm happy to
Speaker 1: sort of meet at the lower end there with Gave
Speaker 1: on eighty three. Right with me, I'm with three. We go.
Speaker 1: Our first prediction is that the the Chicago Cubs are
Speaker 1: going to win eighty three games this year, and they're
Speaker 1: going to go on a zero to ten run and
Speaker 1: ruin that immediately for us, no doubt. Second up, we've
Speaker 1: got the Brewers again, we're all very very close. We've
Speaker 1: got eighty four and eighty four for Russy Gave, I've
Speaker 1: got eighty five. So happy to go to the consensus
Speaker 1: and take eighty four on that. I think we should
Speaker 1: leave the Cardinals for now. Pirates, me and Russ are close.
Speaker 1: Gave is a long way off. What do we think?
Speaker 2: What have you should got?
Speaker 1: So, yeah, Gav, you're on seventy three, Russ has got
Speaker 1: seventy nine and I'm on eighty two. So I'm happy
Speaker 1: to come down to Russell, but not not an awful
Speaker 1: lot lower than that.
Speaker 2: I just don't see where the bats are.
Speaker 3: But you only you can win games one nil, Gav.
Speaker 3: If you have some of the Beds pitching the how's.
Speaker 1: The seventy eight to split it?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: Yeah, go seventy eight on the Pirates. Yep, lovely seventy
Speaker 1: eight and the Pirates the Reds. I've been I've been
Speaker 1: stingy on the Reds. I'm not gonna lie I have
Speaker 1: been stingy. I think Gavin has been, so I've gone
Speaker 1: with sixty eight on the Reds. Russell's got seventy four
Speaker 1: and Gav's got seventy nine. I think I've been stingy.
Speaker 1: I think Gav has been a bit of a homer,
Speaker 1: so I personally would rather trust Russell on the Reds.
Speaker 2: I don't think I trust Russell with anything, so I
Speaker 2: think I'm definitely right on the Reds. If anything, I'm
Speaker 2: too low on the Reds.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm happy to go up to like a seventy
Speaker 1: six or something like that, but I'm not going anywhere
Speaker 1: here seventy ninety.
Speaker 2: I figured that you'd both have them as a five
Speaker 2: hundred team, and I thought I was going to be
Speaker 2: the low guy.
Speaker 3: I think they I also think that would they'll sell
Speaker 3: mid season because this is like maybe not this year
Speaker 3: and when the project.
Speaker 2: So what happens when I'm get you to disagree are.
Speaker 1: We can have a tiebreaker. We have our tiebreak game. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see if this works. Right. So, Gav, you're the
Speaker 1: one who is disagreeing with us. So I need you
Speaker 1: to pick a stat or fact or something. We can
Speaker 1: search about a random REDS player and then I will
Speaker 1: try and generate a random red player.
Speaker 2: So you just want the stat.
Speaker 1: Pick us a stat? Yeah, because I don't want to
Speaker 1: pick a bunch of pictures. If if it's a hitting.
Speaker 2: Stat, so stolen bases last year?
Speaker 1: Stolen bases? Right, Okay, So that means we need hitters.
Speaker 1: I can randomly generate a hitter and then we will
Speaker 1: all guess and then whoever is closest their prediction is
Speaker 1: the one that will work. So this is fantastic audio
Speaker 1: with me frantically typing. Right, let's have a look at this, so.
Speaker 2: Russell, you better not be cheating.
Speaker 1: Nope with this scary mind. Yeah, okay, so you should
Speaker 1: be able to see my spinometer of Reds players for
Speaker 1: those of you who are listening to it, take my word,
Speaker 1: there is a spinometer of Reds players. I'm gonna spin
Speaker 1: it and we're gonna land on someone around it goes.
Speaker 1: We have Christian Encamassian Strand. Right, so, uh, let's how
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this without relieving it to Gab. You're
Speaker 1: the expert, then, right, you go first? How many how
Speaker 1: many steels? Steels were going with you.
Speaker 2: But stolen basis last year? Zero?
Speaker 1: Zero? Oh well, I'm gonna go with one. The answer
Speaker 1: is zero. He didn't play, did he? No? He played
Speaker 1: like twenty other play appearances. But there's no way he
Speaker 1: stole anything. I reckon he's got one following a double steal? There?
Speaker 1: Who can who can search this one quickest? Have your
Speaker 1: optimism role Christian and Canassian Strand has zero stolen basis. Okay, right,
Speaker 1: what's happened here is we've now not broken our our
Speaker 1: tie with our tie breaker. So I'm going to re
Speaker 1: spin and it's just now between the two of you, right,
Speaker 1: so go spin again and the we have Heimer Candelario.
Speaker 2: Okay, Gav me first again.
Speaker 1: Okay, now fine, Russ, you go first, Sick, I'll go five.
Speaker 1: Then the answer is Russ, the answer is or So
Speaker 1: Gav wins, Gav we went, and we're going with Gav's prediction.
Speaker 1: Then for the Reds, Wow, good grief. Let's hope we
Speaker 1: don't have to do any of those tie breakers because
Speaker 1: that was painful. No, it was good fun. It was
Speaker 1: good fun. Right, so then let's have a look at
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, because we are all wildly different on this one.
Speaker 1: I think we're probably heading to another tiebreak. I think
Speaker 1: there's Cardinals magic with eighty six. Russell thinks they're subw're
Speaker 1: in the middle with sorry, Gab thinks that somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle with eighty and Russell reckons they're only going
Speaker 1: to win seventy three games. Am I fair and saying
Speaker 1: we need to do another another tie break here? I
Speaker 1: think so I'm going to wants to change his mind.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: This is one of the one things I feel more
Speaker 3: certain on where we could be proven in six months time.
Speaker 3: But I think the devil magic has gone.
Speaker 1: Okay, then I'm going to go for let's do career
Speaker 1: earnings like quickly I can. I've got sports track up
Speaker 1: ready to go. Career earning. We're just going for a
Speaker 1: guess and then I'm going to throw this into our wheel.
Speaker 1: Then you don't want to see the wheel because that
Speaker 1: just messes everything up. So let's spin the wheel. Career
Speaker 1: earnings of Lars Newtbar. So I'm going to say Lars
Speaker 1: Newtbar has career earning is going to be fairly low.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say Las Newtbar's career earnings are going
Speaker 1: to be one point eight million.
Speaker 2: I'll say seven.
Speaker 1: Just seven dollars or seven million dollars.
Speaker 2: He's got two years of arbitration in the Yeah, I think, Russ.
Speaker 3: I think I'm going to say about three million. Okay, Well,
Speaker 3: I've got the answer in front of me, and unfortunately
Speaker 3: he's one again.
Speaker 1: Gav is right. The career earnings of last Newbar is
Speaker 1: nine point nine million, force two, five hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: six dollars. So yeah, we're going to go with the
Speaker 1: gal answer yet again.
Speaker 2: But as it was in the middle, that probably helps us,
Speaker 2: doesn't it.
Speaker 1: It does it, it's yeah, abolutely are you including this
Speaker 1: year's earnings? I don't know. I've just gone through a
Speaker 1: website and it's told me that, yes, yes, we are, Yes,
Speaker 1: he's not earned that money yet. Mate. Oh well, here's
Speaker 1: what it is. I think Gave still would have won
Speaker 1: even if even if we didn't include this year.
Speaker 3: All right, well it gets to be eighty, so we've
Speaker 3: now congested league, probably fairly similar to almost exactly what
Speaker 3: Fangraft said. So yeah, So running it down, we've got
Speaker 3: Brewers on eighty four, Cubs on eighty three, Cardinals on eighty,
Speaker 3: Pirates on seventy eight. Sorry sorry, Red's on seventy nine,
Speaker 3: and then Pirates on seventy eight.
Speaker 1: That's where should we go next? Um, well, let's jump
Speaker 1: to the A L West Al West, So revealing our
Speaker 1: Al West. Russ, do you want to talk us through?
Speaker 1: Then your approach first, and let's see what you got. Yep,
Speaker 1: So the Ale West.
Speaker 3: I kind of thought that there are some reasonable teams here,
Speaker 3: but I think that's more based on the fact that
Speaker 3: there's one very bad team and there's also another very
Speaker 3: bad team in the ALE that they're going to play again.
Speaker 1: So I have the.
Speaker 3: Astros and the Rangers getting ninety wins. I like what
Speaker 3: the Rangers system looks like right now with their additions
Speaker 3: and with the potential of actually having the grand pitch.
Speaker 3: While that potential is always there, I will still be
Speaker 3: the of the optimist that they'll get more than twenty
Speaker 3: innings out of him. So I have the Angels, so
Speaker 3: you have the Rangers and the Astros both with ninety wins.
Speaker 3: The Astros, I just think are generally a machine and
Speaker 3: do better than you think they will do, even if
Speaker 3: you don't trust what's going on there. I think they've
Speaker 3: got good starting pitching and a very good bullpen that
Speaker 3: will keep them involved in a lot of the games.
Speaker 3: I think got the Mariners on eighty five wins. I
Speaker 3: kind of think they're a pretty average team, but because
Speaker 3: I've got everybody in this division beating up on the Angels,
Speaker 3: that kind of takes them a little bit higher. I
Speaker 3: also think that they're probably actually roughly in line with
Speaker 3: most of the teams in the Al Central as well,
Speaker 3: So see them coming out kind of like fairly even
Speaker 3: across a lot of amount of games. Sacramento Athletics I
Speaker 3: have eighty one wins.
Speaker 1: I think this is weird.
Speaker 3: Is a reasonable team. I'm not certain if they will
Speaker 3: sell anybody off in the mid season, which is why
Speaker 3: I still had them getting to eighty one wins, even
Speaker 3: though they might be out of the division. Think that
Speaker 3: their approach to kind of trying to stay ahead of
Speaker 3: the luxury tax, or not the luxury tax, to saying
Speaker 3: ahead of the amount of money they're supposed to spend
Speaker 3: otherwise there will be soon. Means I don't think they'll
Speaker 3: get rid of any players. I have to have to
Speaker 3: deal with, like maybe getting some money in to get
Speaker 3: to a line. And then the Angels are bad, and
Speaker 3: I think the Angels will be bad, and I think
Speaker 3: that they will probably then get rid of players. So
Speaker 3: they have sixty eight wins. So yeah, two reasonable teams
Speaker 3: at the top and then one very bad LA team
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, you can't really differ far far
Speaker 3: from that. I mean, I think there's as there is
Speaker 3: every year. There is far too much made about the
Speaker 3: demise of the Astros. The Astros are still a stonkingly
Speaker 3: good team in a division that's that has.
Speaker 1: Pulled its socks up over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: It is, it is a lot better than it was
Speaker 1: a few years ago. So I've still got the Astros
Speaker 1: sat the top with with ninety one wins, and I
Speaker 1: don't think there's really anybody that's going to be that
Speaker 1: close behind him. I think the rest of the team
Speaker 1: are going to be the rest of the division are
Speaker 1: going to be in squabbling so much that that they
Speaker 1: sort of take a lot of points off of each other.
Speaker 1: I do have the Angels at the bottom on seventy wins.
Speaker 1: They're not going anywhere. There's nothing about the Angels. They
Speaker 1: don't They don't really have much much behind them in
Speaker 1: sort of future coming either. Like their farm ranking isn't
Speaker 1: all that great, you know, it's it's it's it's chipped
Speaker 1: up a little, but it's it still hasn't felt brilliant
Speaker 1: for a good while. The Mariners just don't seem to
Speaker 1: be able to get out of their own way. They've
Speaker 1: got all the pitching in the world, but none of
Speaker 1: the hitting, and that's going to land them squarely on
Speaker 1: an eighty for me. And then the Rangers have just
Speaker 1: been lucky for years. Last year we saw them fall
Speaker 1: down from their false throne, and I think they're going
Speaker 1: to see a bit more of that again. Perhaps there
Speaker 1: was some hangover last year, so maybe they're not quite
Speaker 1: as bad. But I've got the Rangers on seventy nine
Speaker 1: at the moment, and then rounding out, I've got the Athletics.
Speaker 1: Athletics have spent you know, they have definitely improved their team.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone can argue that. And so this
Speaker 1: Athletics team is I think I may have been slightly
Speaker 1: stingy at hitting them on eighty one, but I've got them,
Speaker 1: got them at five hundred, where I think they have
Speaker 1: really pulled their socks up. And this is a team
Speaker 1: that was a disaster and absolute disaster a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and they have chipped away, they've improved, they've
Speaker 1: spent money. Despite the whole rest of their saga with
Speaker 1: their stadium, I think they're on the way back. So
Speaker 1: I've given the Athletics eighty one this time. Gab, what
Speaker 1: do you got? Well?
Speaker 2: So I think we're we're fine on the Angels, aren't we?
Speaker 2: With all the same on that roughly, And I think
Speaker 2: we're roughly the same on the Mariners. Yeah, the Astros
Speaker 2: have got winning the division. Maybe if I'd saved a
Speaker 2: couple of wins elsewhere I would have had them at ninety.
Speaker 2: I don't think the Texas Rangers are much further behind.
Speaker 2: I think if everything goes right for the Rangers, then
Speaker 2: they could win the division. I am still a bit
Speaker 2: scarred from the abuse we got last year when we
Speaker 2: predicted that the Rangers, the World Series champions, would not
Speaker 2: make the playoffs and they didn't. But yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: think there was a need for all of that abuse
Speaker 2: on social media. But the big one, the big one
Speaker 2: is thee Athletics. Come on, guys, They're not They're not
Speaker 2: going to five hundred team. They are dreadful. They're a
Speaker 2: dreadful team who have luckily, you know, they've just flung
Speaker 2: loads of mud at the wall and some of it's stuck.
Speaker 2: And they've got a few good players with Bla Day
Speaker 2: and Butler and Brent Rooker who have turned from players
Speaker 2: that other teams didn't really want into usable, decent players.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they've just got a couple of innings eaters
Speaker 2: in the rotation. I can't see them winning eighty games.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the method has worked. Like the Athletics
Speaker 3: have done. What Chicago White Dogs haven't done right now
Speaker 3: is that basically they just let a load of young
Speaker 3: players or let a load of players that we don't
Speaker 3: know play and kept the ones that have done well.
Speaker 3: This is the first season where they've then actually added
Speaker 3: some talent. We've all got no idea what's actually going
Speaker 3: to happen at Sacramento. I think it's probably going to
Speaker 3: be a bit of a hitters park, and I think
Speaker 3: they've got good hitters, which and I think the fact
Speaker 3: of playing in a triple A stadium, their pictures will
Speaker 3: get used to it, whereas I think the the teams
Speaker 3: will do it less often and not get used to
Speaker 3: what that stadium is like and what kind of For me,
Speaker 3: that means that, like, I've given them a few extra
Speaker 3: wins that I think is probably like the consensus is
Speaker 3: probably in that mid seventies range. But I could come
Speaker 3: down like two or three off them. If you're willing.
Speaker 1: To come back to me, I could drop two to
Speaker 1: towards GAV. I could do that. Youre willing to come
Speaker 1: up to seventy eight nine, seventy nine, Well, I guess
Speaker 1: that response means that we'll start this as we have
Speaker 1: is calling another tie break.
Speaker 3: Well, I think let's put sixty nine in for the
Speaker 3: for the Angels first, Yeah, agree, eighty two on the Mariners.
Speaker 3: If you guys are happy or eighty one? Happy with that,
Speaker 3: we do eighty two.
Speaker 1: On the Man. They were also fairly fairly close on
Speaker 1: the Astros. Have you around that kind of war?
Speaker 2: I just go up on the Astros.
Speaker 1: Yeah, eighty eight, eighty nine, eighty nine I think sounds
Speaker 1: yeah in the middle of the Astrods, and then I
Speaker 1: think the couple more tie breaks to happen. Okay, Athletic Athletics.
Speaker 2: I don't like about the Athletics is that their fans
Speaker 2: are just such wine as an't they?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Gab, you're trying to get us seriously,
Speaker 1: it's run on the internet, jesus.
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of the Disneyland holiday, when you know
Speaker 2: the kids didn't want to go away for a weekend
Speaker 2: excursion that we're trying to book. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like Gav's religating some past traumas. Now ye sorry,
Speaker 1: sorry because of stout Gav or something.
Speaker 2: Which team we do?
Speaker 1: Athletics the sprint speed, sprint speed, Good Lord, Russ start
Speaker 1: looking up Sprince Beat. I'm going to spin the wheel
Speaker 1: right and hope that none of these players have been
Speaker 1: traded since I put the spreadsheet together. Right, we are
Speaker 1: looking for the sprint speed of Seth Brown. I will
Speaker 1: go first. I reckon Seth Brown is a person who
Speaker 1: is going to be relatively fast. I'm going to say,
Speaker 1: are we doing this in per second?
Speaker 3: I'll tell you do it in foot per second? And
Speaker 3: I'll tell you that the league average is twenty seven.
Speaker 3: I'll give you that as a context. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go twenty eight point five feet per second,
Speaker 1: gav russ Or you want me to go next? Yeah? Good, Next,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go league average twenty seven. Go.
Speaker 2: I think he's very slow, so I'm going to go
Speaker 2: twenty four four.
Speaker 1: What's their answer, than Russky. Isn't that pooh hoole speed?
Speaker 2: I can't kill per second?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five?
Speaker 3: For goodness sake, Okay, Seth Brown in at twenty seven
Speaker 3: point four foot per second?
Speaker 1: So you then, russ that's me. So we get to
Speaker 1: have an eighty one win. Athletics wasn't real, effact. That
Speaker 1: was also my prediction. So gabas always done the back
Speaker 1: for that one. Yeah, well, we get to have two
Speaker 1: versus one because two of we thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be right, So then we move on to the
Speaker 1: other one. They're probably the most divisive in the league
Speaker 1: for us. We've got the Rangers. I am currently sat
Speaker 1: on seventy nine, Gavin is on eighty four, and Russell
Speaker 1: has predicted ninety wins for the Rangers. I think we're
Speaker 1: desperately far apart here. I can see nothing other than
Speaker 1: the tiebreak situation here again, are we all in agreement
Speaker 1: on that?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: Yep? Okay, right? So what am I got? Then? I'm
Speaker 1: going to say how far away they live from Swindon? Sorry,
Speaker 1: how far away they were born from Swindon. Let's do
Speaker 1: that because that's easier to work out where they were
Speaker 1: born rather than where they live.
Speaker 2: It's Swindon Wiltshire or Swindon, Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Swindon Wiltshire because this is a British podcast. So right,
Speaker 1: So the player we are we're we're we're guessing about
Speaker 1: here is Sean Armstrong. Does Sean arms Strong play for
Speaker 1: the for the Rangers? Yeah? Still place where the technis Rangers? Okay, right,
Speaker 1: I can say that we're see his place of birth.
Speaker 1: Let's look that up for so he was born in Newbern,
Speaker 1: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's an easy one. So that is gonna
Speaker 2: be Newburn, right, Okay, so that's that's gonna be three thousand,
Speaker 2: nine hundred and fifty miles.
Speaker 1: Okay, I will go with six hundred square, four thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred. What did you say?
Speaker 2: Three nine five? O?
Speaker 1: Okay? Three in four nine. Then have the on the
Speaker 1: first one.
Speaker 2: Yeah I did, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: It's three and a half thousand from London to New York.
Speaker 1: So new but new Bern, North Carolina. Right, And the
Speaker 1: answer is three thousand, seven hundred and seventy four miles.
Speaker 1: We get a nineteen range. I'm never gonna win any
Speaker 1: of these, am I? Okay? What? So there we have it.
Speaker 1: Then we have we have the Texas Rangers, apparently winning
Speaker 1: against my better judgment, ninety games for the for the
Speaker 1: AL West twenty twenty five seasons. So they're complete our
Speaker 1: AL West. Bringing up the bottom, we all agree, we've
Speaker 1: got the Angels on sixty nine. Next up, we are
Speaker 1: saying the Athletics are going to win eighty one games.
Speaker 1: The Mariners are barely going to break five hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty two games. The Astros are going to take eighty
Speaker 1: nine games from the year, and then the Rangers are
Speaker 1: going to win the division. Despite us all saying that
Speaker 1: they were not as good as we all thought they were,
Speaker 1: They're going to win the division with ninety games. So
Speaker 1: that there, there you have it. That's the AL West. Okay,
Speaker 1: I am going to take the NL East. Lest Let's
Speaker 1: do the NL East next. I'll start us off then,
Speaker 1: so NL East. I reckon big bounce back guys. They've
Speaker 1: always had the talent and they should be at the top.
Speaker 1: I reckon the Braves, the Land of Braves are going
Speaker 1: to come out and they're going to thump ninety seven
Speaker 1: games here. They're going to be back to what what
Speaker 1: they should have been if they hadn't had the disastrous
Speaker 1: injuries of last year. You know, could you know set
Speaker 1: seven wins, you know, seven eight wins of injuries. I
Speaker 1: think they easily could have had those last year. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I reckon ninety seven wins for the Braves. Phillies. I
Speaker 1: reckon the Phillies are gonna gonna keep on a hammering
Speaker 1: out where they are there. They are a very very
Speaker 1: good team. There's plenty to them. They've got great pitching,
Speaker 1: They've got some absolute thump with their bats. Maybe some
Speaker 1: questions over the bullpedder been answered over the last few years,
Speaker 1: but but that variance there, I think there's still still
Speaker 1: something to worry about there. So I've got the Phillies
Speaker 1: still doing very very well on ninety two wins. Next up, right,
Speaker 1: slap bang in the middle. I've got the Mets because
Speaker 1: despite despite the fact they spilt all that money, they're
Speaker 1: still the Mets. I still think they're gonna Mets Mets
Speaker 1: the division, and they're barely going to break break halfway
Speaker 1: and they're gonna they're only gonna win eighty two games.
Speaker 1: Getting down to the bottom end, I don't think there's
Speaker 1: much variance here between us, as there shouldn't be. The
Speaker 1: Nationals are going to be poor on seventy four seventy
Speaker 1: four games. There's there's nothing really there. They haven't come
Speaker 1: on far there there. They're great package they got back
Speaker 1: from the Padres has been fine. I don't think they've
Speaker 1: been spectacular like they sort of needed to be for
Speaker 1: the exchange of so Too and then dropping it to
Speaker 1: the bottom is going to be the Marlins. I've got
Speaker 1: them on seventy two which could be a little bit generous.
Speaker 1: I have how's your How's your ner East, So I've.
Speaker 2: Got the bravest and the Phillies both at the top,
Speaker 2: and yeah, thinking about it now, the Braves have got
Speaker 2: stryder coming back in a kuna coming back, and yeah,
Speaker 2: you made a good point about the Phillies bullpen and
Speaker 2: really they don't. It was a bit at dodgy last
Speaker 2: year and it's I think it's it's far worse now.
Speaker 2: So maybe even though I like Philadelphia the best to
Speaker 2: win the World Series out of the everyone in that division,
Speaker 2: I think maybe the Braves will finish top. I think
Speaker 2: a very very very very generous with the Marlins.
Speaker 1: Got the Marlins on them.
Speaker 2: I've got sixty two, and I think that's generous. The Nationals,
Speaker 2: I think we're about saying, and the Mets are they're
Speaker 2: quite a high variance team. They've they've really suffered with
Speaker 2: the couple of pitching injuries, having got rid of Severino
Speaker 2: and who else did they get rid of last year? Anyway,
Speaker 2: they got rid of two two of their main starters
Speaker 2: from last year, so they've lost a lot of innings
Speaker 2: and now they've lost Montes and Manaiah so they're already
Speaker 2: struggling a bit. Yes, Soto makes such a big difference
Speaker 2: to that team and could mean that Alonso hitting behind Soto,
Speaker 2: Alonzo could have an MVP caliber season. I don't think
Speaker 2: he will. I think probably he'll be as poor as
Speaker 2: he was last year. But so they're quite high variants.
Speaker 2: I've got them just on eighty eight. I think that's everyone,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Russ Russ, Yeah, I kind of chickened out on
Speaker 3: making a decision here.
Speaker 1: I put them all on ninety.
Speaker 3: Like, I think there are three quite high variant teams here,
Speaker 3: but I think they're all good. I think they will
Speaker 3: be good. The Braves last season showed kind of how
Speaker 3: paul that underbelly is if they kind of don't have
Speaker 3: everything go their way. Yes, they still just about made
Speaker 3: the playoffs, But like them going back to being a
Speaker 3: ninety five ninety seven when team relies on everybody, going
Speaker 3: back to the level that we saw two seasons ago,
Speaker 3: which I got no idea what a Kenyon is going
Speaker 3: to be able to do, given in fact that he's
Speaker 3: had injuries to both his legs now or whatever, and
Speaker 3: we haven't really seen what we can get back from Strider,
Speaker 3: so I'll be a little pessimistic on them before I
Speaker 3: kind of see something that from a lineup perspective, I'll
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: I think it's really good. I think they're a good, good,
Speaker 1: strong line up again, but of depth is not the
Speaker 1: thing Mets.
Speaker 3: We can talk about their pitching not being in the
Speaker 3: position they would want it to be, but it wasn't
Speaker 3: in that position last season either, Like they had no
Speaker 3: Singer for most of last season. They've got him starting,
Speaker 3: Clay Holmes, who knows what he can actually have many
Speaker 3: innings he's going to pitch. But it's look pretty phenomenal
Speaker 3: doing that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: And just Soda is just an unbelievable ad.
Speaker 3: We can talk about it for so many days or whatever,
Speaker 3: but I genuinely do believe that Lindor in front of
Speaker 3: Soda will see more pitches, and I think all on
Speaker 3: so after lind Or will see more pitches because of
Speaker 3: Sodo being there, and they both should be the position
Speaker 3: to take advantage of it. Nationals are solid, meth They've
Speaker 3: got a good couple of players, They're not going to
Speaker 3: be in goodtention. I don't think they've really got many
Speaker 3: people to flip either. So that's why I'm just put
Speaker 3: them as solid thirty two. Anna Marlins might adult flip
Speaker 3: anybody who plays well, so they're getting sixty five wins
Speaker 3: because they're probably actually a seventy win team right now.
Speaker 3: But whoever plays well on that team and isn't young
Speaker 3: is getting traded. So because this isn't their year, and
Speaker 3: probably even next year is in their year, they're thinking
Speaker 3: much further down the line, So anybody is good going
Speaker 3: to get traded. So yeah, that's the only reason why
Speaker 3: I'm probably in the in the sixties for the Marlins
Speaker 3: are not actually at like seventy odd.
Speaker 1: Okay, right, So what I'm hearing is Russell could be
Speaker 1: talked up to me on the Marlins. But we'll come
Speaker 1: back to that because there's there's some some divisive this there.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of places we clearly agree here. So
Speaker 1: the Phillies we are all hovering around ninety one, so
Speaker 1: I think it's fair. So Russell's got ninety, gav Is
Speaker 1: ninety one. I'm saying ninety two, So I'm happy to
Speaker 1: meet the middle there and say ninety one. I think
Speaker 1: that's fair for the Phillies equally, the Nationals that are
Speaker 1: just just bad. They're not spectacular bad. They're not gonna
Speaker 1: make it to five hundred, and RUSS are on seventy two.
Speaker 1: I've got seventy four, happy to meet the middle on
Speaker 1: seventy three. If we all agree on that one, yeah, good, lovely, Right,
Speaker 1: then we come to a few divisiveness spits's, and I
Speaker 1: seem to be the outlier here. Let's start with the
Speaker 1: Marlins at the bottom. Then I've got seventy two saying
Speaker 1: sixty two. Russell is saying sixty five. But he's saying
Speaker 1: that that is based on them trading people away if
Speaker 1: they're any good. I would say to counter that is
Speaker 1: that do the Marlins have any players that are any good?
Speaker 1: Is there anybody to trade away? Or is it an
Speaker 1: entirely meh team that really isn't gonna have all that
Speaker 1: much to trade at the deadline, So they actually may
Speaker 1: well stay fairly fairly put. And that's that's why I
Speaker 1: think RUSS should come up closer to me around the
Speaker 1: sort of seventy mark.
Speaker 2: Sandy Alcantara is the only one that they've really got
Speaker 2: to trade.
Speaker 1: Old floppy elbow, right, yeah, next, But.
Speaker 2: Even if they do, they're going to get a bag
Speaker 2: of balls for it, aren't they They they don't seem
Speaker 2: to be able to capitalize on trading the way the stars.
Speaker 3: So cal Countrill, you've got Anthony Bender, either of those
Speaker 3: like has a half decent season.
Speaker 1: They're not They're not on the mark. They're not on
Speaker 1: this Marlins teams that makes the future like probably even
Speaker 1: like Ryan whny wins, are they gonna cost you if
Speaker 1: they get traded though? I mean really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But I'm saying like all it takes is one
Speaker 3: of these pictures to be like a two win picture
Speaker 3: and they're gone. And so like I think, Rob, you
Speaker 3: should be really coming down to us in like the
Speaker 3: in the high sixties.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll capitulate. Okay, let's can I can I tease
Speaker 1: you with us sixty six? Yeah, that's fly by me, Gav.
Speaker 2: I could come from sixty two. I could go up
Speaker 2: to sixty four.
Speaker 1: All right, meet in the middle sixty five. So Russ
Speaker 1: all along, yes, right, all along? Thank you? He calculated that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna we're going to meet there on sixty five.
Speaker 1: So maybe I've been a little bit bullish on the Braves.
Speaker 1: But again, the other one that I this time, I'm
Speaker 1: going to pick on Gav. I said ninety seven for
Speaker 1: the Braves. Gav said ninety one, and Russell has said ninety.
Speaker 1: But Gavin was saying, yeah, there's you know, there's some
Speaker 1: agreement here in that maybe the Phillies bullpens a bit
Speaker 1: if he which is why they're not going to be
Speaker 1: quite up with them, and perhaps the Braves were particularly
Speaker 1: injured last year, which they were so, so could you
Speaker 1: perhaps be talked up on the Braves coming closer to
Speaker 1: my ninety seven.
Speaker 2: I would have been able to if you hadn't taken
Speaker 2: all of those wins and given them to Miami. There's
Speaker 2: not enough wins to go round.
Speaker 1: So Russell, any budge, I'm not going up to ninety seven.
Speaker 3: I could do like ninety two maybe, but but I'm
Speaker 3: not going up to ninety seven.
Speaker 1: I'm ninety two is too low for me. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to have to all right, let's let's let's
Speaker 1: do the Braves. I'm calling a tie break on the Braves.
Speaker 1: I think we initially decided there's gonna be a number
Speaker 1: of tie breaks we could have, but that's gone straight
Speaker 1: out the window. So right, what what what should we
Speaker 1: do for the braves. Let's have more potential tiebreakers. What's that?
Speaker 1: Can I choose one or up? Okay, fine, you could
Speaker 1: do the tie break. Fine, all right, I was calling it,
Speaker 1: but no problems. It's all yours. What do you want
Speaker 1: to do? Braves pitched innings pitched right season, career innings
Speaker 1: pitched last season. Do you want me to include position players?
Speaker 1: Let's say no? Okay, right, okay, So I'm getting up
Speaker 1: our list of braves. We spin the wheel. Where's it
Speaker 1: gonna land? Dylan Lee. Dylan Lee is a human. I
Speaker 1: have definitely heard of Dylan. Give you some contection. He
Speaker 1: is a relief pitcher. If that helped that much. I
Speaker 1: was aware of Dylan Lee, and he's been around for
Speaker 1: many few some years. Should have about.
Speaker 2: I'll get the ball rolling. I will say twenty one innings.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm pretty cerain. He pitched the entire season, so
Speaker 3: I'm going to say sixty three.
Speaker 1: I reckon he was a workhorse that I've never heard of,
Speaker 1: and he's pitched seventy innings.
Speaker 3: Russell what we got, But Dylan Lee has fifty nine
Speaker 3: point two innings.
Speaker 1: Pitch Russell again, Russell is good at this isn't he yes, well,
Speaker 1: just so he could have just been completely lying.
Speaker 3: Yes, you could go with that. So the Braves are
Speaker 3: a ninety win team, there, you Gough. I think that
Speaker 3: you're doing them a massive disservice. Okay, and then the Mets.
Speaker 1: Was the last team in this division, so well we
Speaker 1: got we got Gavin leading. Sorry, no, Russell is leading
Speaker 1: the way with ninety wins for the Mets. Gavin is
Speaker 1: second with eighty eight wins for the Mets. I admit
Speaker 1: I have been stingy on eighty two wins for the Mets,
Speaker 1: so I am willing to come up to eighty seven.
Speaker 2: You don't think they'll be closer to their braves than
Speaker 2: the Phillies.
Speaker 1: I don't, I really don't. I think the Braves are
Speaker 1: head and shoulders above the rest of this division. I
Speaker 1: think the Phillies are fine, but they're going to throw
Speaker 1: away a lot of games right at the back end.
Speaker 1: I think the Mets have a couple of good hitters
Speaker 1: and the rest of it's just going to met.
Speaker 2: You can't risk a tie break just for the sake
Speaker 2: of coming up to eighty eight or eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Surely, all the way up to eighty seven, I have
Speaker 1: moved a long way there, gave you're on eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Now I have, so that's always to myself. Seven, I'm
Speaker 2: eighty eight. So you might as well say eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, eighty seven. We've got two eighty sevens gab, we're
Speaker 1: rounding on you in a corner. Now eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Eighty eight doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1: Eighty seven is there? We go? Right? So how you
Speaker 1: do that, master negotiator? He nearly had me right, So Thel, sorry,
Speaker 1: NL East. We've got the Phillies winning with ninety one wins,
Speaker 1: We've got the Braves coming second with ninety wins. The
Speaker 1: Mets are going to get eighty seven wins, a long
Speaker 1: way ahead of the Nationals on seventy three wins, and
Speaker 1: then the Marlins are going to be dwelling right at
Speaker 1: the bottom with sixty five wins. Russell pick us another division.
Speaker 1: Let's we might as well finish off the NL Roger
Speaker 1: Dodger Dodgers. Indeed, okay, Russ, do you want to John
Speaker 1: run us down? Then start us off with the NL West. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think we basically have potential the greatest lineup
Speaker 3: of all time and the greatest pitching depths of all
Speaker 3: time that Major League Baseball has ever seen. I don't
Speaker 3: think I could quite predict that they were actually going
Speaker 3: to beat them Marlin's record, but.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty close.
Speaker 3: I don't think much of the Rockies. That's a fairly
Speaker 3: easy decision to make. And I'm not really certain that
Speaker 3: the Giants and the Padres and the d Backs are
Speaker 3: that great teams either. So I just think this Dodgers
Speaker 3: team is going to rock a lot of people and
Speaker 3: they're gonna easily win this division. One hundred and seven
Speaker 3: is a bit of a is a bit of a
Speaker 3: punt to that. I'm really saying that they're going to
Speaker 3: be one of the best teams in baseball history.
Speaker 1: But otherwise I've got three mediocre teams in the middle that.
Speaker 3: I think the Giants probably all worst, but I'm not
Speaker 3: certain of that, and I kind of just think that
Speaker 3: the Padres and the d Backs will be fighting for
Speaker 3: wild card places. So yeah, that's my view of the NL.
Speaker 1: West numbers are giving us. Then, so Dodgers are going
Speaker 1: to say one hundred and seven.
Speaker 3: One hundred and seven winners for the Dodgers, eighty four
Speaker 3: wins for the d Backs, and the Padres, Giants with
Speaker 3: eighty one and the Rockies with sixty.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, Garvin, then what's what's your NL West look like?
Speaker 2: I changed the Dodgers from ninety nine to one hundred
Speaker 2: because I had an extra win to give to someone
Speaker 2: and it was either give it to the Dodgers or
Speaker 2: take it off the White Sox. I do think that
Speaker 2: there is and it hasn't been helped by the two
Speaker 2: games we've just seen, but I do think there's a
Speaker 2: bit of this the Emperor's New clothes with the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: I don't think they are historically great scene. The rotation
Speaker 2: is great. The three top of the lineup when they're
Speaker 2: healthy are absolutely fabulous. But let's get realistic. Tourney's had
Speaker 2: a few injuries. Freddy really struggled. He was fantastic in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. This is Freddy Freeman. He was fantastic in
Speaker 2: the playoffs, but we didn't know if he could could
Speaker 2: run then, and he and Betts have already missed this series.
Speaker 2: Betts is trying to move is what thirty two thirty three,
Speaker 2: and he's trying to move to short stop. So there
Speaker 2: are injuries to be had there, and then you take
Speaker 2: one or two of those out of the lineup and yeah,
Speaker 2: they can mix a match. Yeah, it's like Andrew Friedman
Speaker 2: is doing what he did at Tampa Bay, but he's
Speaker 2: doing it with money. Because no one really thinks that
Speaker 2: Kiki and Andez or Edmund or p Haz or Tioska
Speaker 2: are really that or Tiosca maybe, but they're not great players,
Speaker 2: but they do get the best out of them. So
Speaker 2: I would be surprised they didn't win a hundred last year.
Speaker 2: I'd be surprised if they won one hundred this year.
Speaker 2: But I've put them down for a hundred. I think
Speaker 2: the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to give them a run
Speaker 2: for the money. I don't think they'll win the division,
Speaker 2: but I think they could take them in the playoffs
Speaker 2: or go further in the playoffs. The fact that you've
Speaker 2: got Corbyn Burns coming to you saying I want to
Speaker 2: pitch for you because I I'm from Arizona, that's it's
Speaker 2: just such a fabulous bonus for them. I can't really
Speaker 2: pick between the Potres and the Giants. Patres seem to
Speaker 2: have more, more talent, more quality. And yeah, the Rockies
Speaker 2: are just gonna rookie, aren't they.
Speaker 1: M Yeah, the Rockies are going to Rocky. But I
Speaker 1: don't think the Rockies are going to Rocky that hard,
Speaker 1: you know, I reckon there's there's I've been generous for
Speaker 1: the sixty nine wins. They're probably a couple less than that.
Speaker 1: But I think I'm in the similar, sort of similar
Speaker 1: sort of region to gab there who you said sixty
Speaker 1: three for the Rockies, I can see here Giants, I'm
Speaker 1: an agreement already yet. Absolutely we're We're about about five
Speaker 1: hundred for that, so we can pretty much lock that
Speaker 1: one in straight away that the Giants are fine. You know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that team, but there's nothing particularly
Speaker 1: brilliant about it either. I really really like the addition
Speaker 1: of Willia Dahmon. I think he's gonna he's gonna be
Speaker 1: a big, big plus for them. But beyond that, there's
Speaker 1: nothing really really exciting me about about anything new with
Speaker 1: the Giants to think they can be anything better than
Speaker 1: last year. I reckon the Padres are gonna be better.
Speaker 1: I reckon the Padres are a great team. I reckon
Speaker 1: they are right bang in the middle of turbulence at
Speaker 1: the moment. I think this is a team that a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, we were all predicting to beat
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, win one hundred and two games, you know,
Speaker 1: and do the business. I think, yeah, there's been a
Speaker 1: couple of subtractions, which is why I'm not saying they're
Speaker 1: gonna win one hundred games. But I think that same
Speaker 1: Padres team right now is sat amongst a club in turmoil,
Speaker 1: and that can do one of two things. They can
Speaker 1: they can go down the pan and they can be terrible,
Speaker 1: or they can kind of get that sort of struggle
Speaker 1: against adversity nobody believed in us cliche, and I really
Speaker 1: think they got that because they've got the players there,
Speaker 1: they've got they've got the staff to really make a
Speaker 1: go of it. So I've got the Padres in ninety
Speaker 1: two because we are not far detached from them being
Speaker 1: predicted to be a great team and then their owner died.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm in on the Padres probably a bit
Speaker 1: higher than you two the d Backs again, yeah, solidly
Speaker 1: eighty five. I'm with you on that, and then I
Speaker 1: am team GAB when it comes to the Dodgers prediction.
Speaker 1: I've got one hundred as well, and for the exact
Speaker 1: same reasons. There's far too much James Autman playing on
Speaker 1: that team to call them, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: best teams of all time. You know, like after that
Speaker 1: first three or four guys, that lineup is going to
Speaker 1: be okay. Now, yeah, but they may well hit it.
Speaker 1: And I'm still predicting one hundred wins. You know, these
Speaker 1: this is still going to be a brilliant team. I
Speaker 1: just don't think they're gonna be you know, dropped to
Speaker 1: your knees and worship brilliant. Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3: I just think that people underestimate how actually having okay
Speaker 3: from like five to nine actually makes a difference. And
Speaker 3: I'm not being bad like that, like some of those teams,
Speaker 3: like we'd look at the Braves six and on the
Speaker 3: Braves is shocking like that, like that is what's going
Speaker 3: to like hurt them in all of the games. I
Speaker 3: just we saw basically the Dodgers win two games against
Speaker 3: the Cubs without probably the second and third best hitter.
Speaker 3: So I just think that depth is like I'm fine
Speaker 3: to be brought down to kind of like if people,
Speaker 3: if you were.
Speaker 1: Give me one hundred and two, would you go see
Speaker 1: I can do one hundred and two. I would prefer
Speaker 1: one hundred and one, but I could do one hundred
Speaker 1: and two. Yav how do you feel about the Dodgers?
Speaker 1: I mean that that is one hell of a hell
Speaker 1: of a rotation, isn't.
Speaker 2: It what they win last year?
Speaker 1: Eight? Or no?
Speaker 2: They weren't a hundred win team last year. If they
Speaker 2: were last year, we'll say one hundred and two. If not,
Speaker 2: we're saying one hundred.
Speaker 1: I like it. And the answer is they won ninety
Speaker 1: eight games, giving.
Speaker 2: Them two extra alan more.
Speaker 1: So come on, we meeting them one hundred and one.
Speaker 1: Let's let's go one hundred and one. They are damn
Speaker 1: good team. My statement has been noted, but I'll give
Speaker 1: you one hundred and one hundred one for the Dodgers, right, okay,
Speaker 1: So where do we definitely agree? So? Okay, the Giants,
Speaker 1: I think. Yeah, you guys have both got eighty one
Speaker 1: for the Giants. I had at eighty. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: happy to come to eighty one with you guys. There's
Speaker 1: there's no arguing there. That's that's absolutely fine. D Backs,
Speaker 1: we're all pretty close on We've got Russell on eighty four,
Speaker 1: gave on eighty nine a bit higher, and then I
Speaker 1: am on eighty five. I think we're all similar there, gave.
Speaker 1: Are you willing to come down a little bit on them?
Speaker 1: Or are you that that keen that the are that good?
Speaker 2: I think out of all of the teams, all thirty teams,
Speaker 2: so the ones, they're the one that I'm most confident about.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so you're gonna call break.
Speaker 2: I'm quite happy for you. Tuans come up to eighty eight?
Speaker 1: Eighty eight? I can I can talk about eighty seven? No, no, no, fine?
Speaker 1: All right? Shall we should we tie break the d backs? Sure? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's your tie break. Have so pick us something
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna use to pull them apart.
Speaker 2: Plate appearances last season, late appearances excellent?
Speaker 1: Right, And whilst Russell cheats and looks up how many
Speaker 1: plate appearances they all had.
Speaker 2: I don't think cheated in anything in his life.
Speaker 1: I know he just cheats by having the biggest brain.
Speaker 1: The wheel is spinning, it is spinning, and we have
Speaker 1: Lords Gurriel Junior, Lord Guriel Junior. Plate appearances last year.
Speaker 1: I will stick my neck out. Then I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: plate appearances of it wasn't there the whole year? Was he?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Say? Was he the whole year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was traded the year before.
Speaker 1: I thought he was injured for a for a substantial
Speaker 1: on the al, he might have been injured, but on
Speaker 1: the sorry, not the al. Okay, I'm gonna say. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna drop it as much. I'm gonna say three hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five plate appearances.
Speaker 3: Lord Is Curiel Junior? Yeah, he definitely had some time injured.
Speaker 3: So what were looking at?
Speaker 1: I s think four sixty or sixty?
Speaker 2: Galv I reckon higher?
Speaker 1: Four eighty eight. Okay, what we've got, gav er Rous, Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of my draft. Four fifty That's
Speaker 1: what I'm looking at.
Speaker 3: Who know is Courriel Junior? Five hundred and fifty three?
Speaker 1: Oh de Lordie? Pretty much?
Speaker 3: Wow, he missed like he played one hundred and thirty
Speaker 3: three games, but he must have played pretty much all
Speaker 3: of those all of the abs in those one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty three games.
Speaker 1: So to gav w Yeah, yeah, I can't argue that
Speaker 1: is eighty nine wins for the d Backs. Okay, right, Padres,
Speaker 1: you guys are very very close. Eighty four and eighty three.
Speaker 1: I am much higher. Have I have I convinced either
Speaker 1: of you that there is something in maybe a win
Speaker 1: or two, and okay, I'm conceiving I'm too high, But
Speaker 1: am I maybe a win or two? Have I managed
Speaker 1: to convince you that the Padres are better than you
Speaker 1: guys have put basically a five hundred team with all
Speaker 1: that talent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I reckon. Maybe I was a little bit unfair
Speaker 2: on eighty three, and I could give them an extra
Speaker 2: couple of wins. I don't think the fact that we
Speaker 2: thought that they were going to contend with the Dodgers
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago and then their owners died,
Speaker 2: I don't think that really has that much beering on it.
Speaker 2: They've still given away a lot of talent and after
Speaker 2: seasoned King and Pervetta, Yeah, you can see it's a decent,
Speaker 2: decent lineup. Yeah, I could go to eighty five, eighty six.
Speaker 1: I could take eighty six. I admit I've been I've
Speaker 1: been a little bit hasty here. Eighty six it is
Speaker 1: how you're feeling about the Padres. Eighty six great, lovely.
Speaker 1: And then last of all, we've got the Rockies. You
Speaker 1: two have been absolutely hitting down on the Rockies, saying
Speaker 1: sixty wins and sixty three wins. I've got sixty nine wins.
Speaker 1: I think you've been stingy again. I've maybe been a
Speaker 1: little bit over the top. But I'm not going to
Speaker 1: shove much further down on the Rockies. I I you know,
Speaker 1: I still think there's there's something a bit weird about
Speaker 1: the Rockies. You just can't predict it. There's going to
Speaker 1: be something coming out of there, you know. So I
Speaker 1: could come down to sixty seven, but no lower tiebreaker.
Speaker 2: Find such a such a tricky team because I like
Speaker 2: so many of their players, and so many of their
Speaker 2: players seem really good, and then when you look at
Speaker 2: the like w RC plus or something, they're not really
Speaker 2: that good at all. So yeah, I could go sixty seven.
Speaker 1: I'm not going that high. Russell Nope, not in a job. Fine, right,
Speaker 1: and then Russell pick as a tiebreaker.
Speaker 3: I want wild pitchers, ill pitches, wild pictures.
Speaker 1: That means we need pictures, wild pitchures. I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you already I know about three of these guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right at the point, like none of us know,
Speaker 3: Like I don't know how anybody, I mean well pitches
Speaker 3: anybody through last season.
Speaker 1: So okay, we're looking for who is that? Okay, so
Speaker 1: wild pitchers are Ryan Feltner. Ryan Feltner, Okay, that was six. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, uh, he barely pitched in three, six
Speaker 1: and three. I'll take I should I'll take seven then,
Speaker 1: so I've got the over. That's how this works.
Speaker 4: Who right fell there through four wild pitchers. So Rob,
Speaker 4: you know, yes, there we go, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: I finally feel vindicated for this game.
Speaker 1: Absolutely wonderful, brilliant. Okay, Gab, big pick us where we're
Speaker 1: going for our second to last division? Sorry, recap there, Sorry,
Speaker 1: my apologies. Quickly recap there. So the NL West is
Speaker 1: going to be won by the Dodgers and one hundred
Speaker 1: and one wins. The d Backs is gonna come second
Speaker 1: with eighty nine wins. San Diego is gonna have eighty
Speaker 1: six wins, hitting five hundred is going to be the
Speaker 1: Giants on eighty one wins, and the Rockies are gonna
Speaker 1: do much better than everyone thought they were gonna do
Speaker 1: and they're gonna hit sixty nine wins to finish up
Speaker 1: the season. That's a right old West. So Gab where
Speaker 1: we're going to go.
Speaker 2: We'll go to the ale least we haven't done that,
Speaker 2: have we?
Speaker 1: American League East we still have to do the American
Speaker 1: League East. Okay, So Gab, do you want to do?
Speaker 1: You want to take us through the American League East? Then?
Speaker 1: And where you think we're going with these? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So this you could you could just throw it up
Speaker 2: in the air and they could come down in any
Speaker 2: order and I'd still be happy with it. I have
Speaker 2: no idea what's going to happen here. So I've got
Speaker 2: Boston and Baltimore with eighty eight. I've got the Yankees
Speaker 2: one ahead with eighty nine. I've got the Blue Jays
Speaker 2: with eighty four, and the Tampa Bay Rays with eighty two.
Speaker 2: The way I'm looking at it is that the Orioles,
Speaker 2: they just frustrate me so much that they have an
Speaker 2: incredible team. I think all of them are projected to
Speaker 2: be above one hundred WRC plus yet and this is
Speaker 2: an incredible window they've got where they're not paying that
Speaker 2: much for so many of these players. Yet they let Ord.
Speaker 2: They didn't let Corbyn Burns go. Corbyn Burns went and
Speaker 2: then they replaced him with Charlie Morton. I think there
Speaker 2: were probably better options if they'd decided to spend a
Speaker 2: bit of money. So, yeah, they have the potential, but
Speaker 2: I don't think they have the pitching. I think the
Speaker 2: Red Sox are much better than they were last year.
Speaker 2: I think it's amazing what forty million dollar player does
Speaker 2: to the lineup. But Bregman does make a big difference
Speaker 2: in there, I think, and it's sort of lifted the
Speaker 2: spirits of the whole franchise, it seems so. Then Duran
Speaker 2: Duran having another great season, and Devas getting little stop.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really good lineup. They've managed to
Speaker 2: look okay despite having lost a couple of I think
Speaker 2: they've lost three starters now already, but yeah, getting the
Speaker 2: new guys in there, that looks pretty good. The Yankees
Speaker 2: as well, they've lost a couple of starters, and that's
Speaker 2: why they're Both of those teams are in the eighties
Speaker 2: rather than the nineties. But I think the Yankees have
Speaker 2: done quite well. They've lost Sodo, and how do you've
Speaker 2: replaced Sodo? You can't really, But having Goldschmidt, which is
Speaker 2: an upgrade at first base, and then having Bellinger, who's
Speaker 2: just an upgrade I think, not ava Soto, but he's
Speaker 2: just an upgrade to the team because he pushes Judge
Speaker 2: over to right field, and then Bellinger can play either
Speaker 2: center or he can play first. And yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: know what to expect from from Jazz and Wells and Volpi.
Speaker 2: They could be all three of them could be fantastic players.
Speaker 2: By ah, I don't know. They've got great rotation, six
Speaker 2: man rotation and most of them coming back from Tommy John.
Speaker 2: But you know that, I don't think that Junior Camenero
Speaker 2: is going to be the rookie of the year. I
Speaker 2: think he might struggle to be an average player. I
Speaker 2: don't think they've got I think that's it. You could
Speaker 2: see Josh Lowe, Brandon Law and Yandy Diaz they could
Speaker 2: be have really really good seasons. Yeah, one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty WRC plus or something, or they could be one
Speaker 2: hundred WRC plus.
Speaker 1: So it's quite a.
Speaker 2: High variance thing. And I don't know how this moved
Speaker 2: to Steinbrenner's really going to affect them. And then the
Speaker 2: Blue Jays' is another tough one to see. They've got
Speaker 2: Vladdie and they've strengthened with Santander coming in. It's a
Speaker 2: pretty good lineup as soon as is it Varshow, as
Speaker 2: soon as Varshow comes back, But and it's a nice
Speaker 2: rotation as well. Although it's amazing the difference just having
Speaker 2: shoes are out of the rotation because I think he's
Speaker 2: got an injury at the moment. It's amazing the difference
Speaker 2: that it looks now when you have to have Yeri
Speaker 2: or Rodriguez go in there. But I think they're going
Speaker 2: to be above five hundred just and Tampa Bay just
Speaker 2: below five hundred. But if you told me that you
Speaker 2: had predicted Tampa Bay to win the division, I don't
Speaker 2: think I could argue really.
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean I was speak a little about the
Speaker 1: AA least I probably could argue with that. Taking the Rays,
Speaker 1: I would say, I do think there's been a little
Speaker 1: bit of an underestimation of that rotation. It is, it
Speaker 1: is deep, and it is it is strong. You've got
Speaker 1: guys who came on really well at the end of
Speaker 1: last year. You got you got an eighth going straight
Speaker 1: back into the top of that rotation in Seae McClanahan
Speaker 1: and a ballpen that there are sneaky guys in this bullpen.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the regular breakout picks and a
Speaker 1: lot of people have picked is Mason Montgomery this year.
Speaker 1: Having seen what he's done yet. He is. He is
Speaker 1: almost nailed on to be fantastic this year. And the
Speaker 1: rest of the bullpen is is good too. It is
Speaker 1: really really good bullpen. I think the pitching for the
Speaker 1: raising and they always if they can stay healthy. I'm
Speaker 1: not even that worried, like they could genuinely afford to
Speaker 1: lose a couple of guys at the moment, and that's
Speaker 1: still going to be an utterly dominant pitching.
Speaker 2: Stuff.
Speaker 1: Bottom half of the lineup is, as gav has pointed out,
Speaker 1: a bit of a disaster. Like we are. We are
Speaker 1: really hoping on some guys turning careers around there in
Speaker 1: order to just get back to sort of average. So
Speaker 1: Danny Jansen was a nice pick up to take what
Speaker 1: was historically been a problem spot for the offense in
Speaker 1: the catcher position. And that is going to make a difference.
Speaker 1: It is gonna make a difference. It's going to pull
Speaker 1: that floor up. But is it gonna make much difference
Speaker 1: than where we were last year? Probably not. I've got
Speaker 1: I've got the raise of eighty two, sorry about eighty
Speaker 1: one coming second bottom in that division. The only team
Speaker 1: I've got below them is going to be the Blue
Speaker 1: Jays and it's it's again. I'm going on vibes here
Speaker 1: rather than than on cold hard facts. But it feels
Speaker 1: like a team that has missed an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: great and is sliding out of contention. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a very very good chance of Laddie Walk's halfway through
Speaker 1: this season, I can I can just see it all
Speaker 1: going a bit south for them. So Blue Jays I
Speaker 1: got on seventy eight, only just under five hund I've
Speaker 1: got on seventy eight the better end of the division though. Orioles.
Speaker 1: I can see the Oriols doing fine. They're the kind
Speaker 1: of the opposite of the Rays. They got that fantastic
Speaker 1: lineup I'm not convinced on. They're pitching in the slightest
Speaker 1: really really not convinced there. If they were to get
Speaker 1: that together, put a couple of bits in, just a
Speaker 1: couple of guys over over the next few weeks, they
Speaker 1: could really catapult them to being the top top team
Speaker 1: in this division. But as it stands, I've got the
Speaker 1: Oriols at eighty eight. Red Sox the big climbers. I
Speaker 1: think everybody knew they're going to be climbers. I've got
Speaker 1: them all the way up on ninety. I think I
Speaker 1: think they've got a real chance to do something here.
Speaker 1: There's a real good feel coming back to that team again, Gavi,
Speaker 1: you hit on that. So I'm really really happy on
Speaker 1: the Red Sox being I'm not happy about it, but
Speaker 1: really expected the Red Sox to be much better on
Speaker 1: ninety and the Yankees still even despite you know, both
Speaker 1: of Jancolis Stanton's elbows, I still have them just pipping
Speaker 1: the division with ninety one. Once they missed out and
Speaker 1: so too. They did make some improvements they did. They
Speaker 1: went out and they got some guys. So yeah, ninety one.
Speaker 1: But Gad makes a fantastic point if you just turn
Speaker 1: this division upside down. Other than really the Rays being
Speaker 1: at the bottom with the Blue Jays, I mean the
Speaker 1: rest of it. Yeah, they are on the jumble. They
Speaker 1: could be anywhere. So that's where I got ninety one
Speaker 1: for the Yankees, ninety for the Red Sox, oils in
Speaker 1: eighty eight, raised eighty one, and Blue Jays on seventy eight. Ruh.
Speaker 2: Now, Russell's gonna tell us how we're wrong.
Speaker 3: So I don't necessarily disagree that I think that like
Speaker 3: the Blue Jays and the Rays are like a like
Speaker 3: the seventy four and the seventy seven wins that I
Speaker 3: have is because I think they're going to be bad
Speaker 3: and they're gonna trade and they're gonna get worse. So
Speaker 3: I think they're going to be significantly behind the other
Speaker 3: three teams and potentially even behind the wild card race
Speaker 3: that they make the decision to flip. And the Rays
Speaker 3: I think are and have shown that this is a
Speaker 3: possibility if they have somebody like half On Kim do
Speaker 3: Well or something like that. Obviously he's got the one
Speaker 3: in a year deal or whatever, could trade him on,
Speaker 3: could get something nice. The Blue Jays. I just think
Speaker 3: how everything is run that. I just think it's a
Speaker 3: should show.
Speaker 1: I genuinely do.
Speaker 3: I just don't think whatever has gone how you just
Speaker 3: do not like get a deal sorted with Laddie. Maybe
Speaker 3: the money that they were talking got a bit ridiculous,
Speaker 3: but you got to make that deal happen, Like you
Speaker 3: cannot lose generational talent like that, especially after the season
Speaker 3: that is Shoe last year, and so I just see
Speaker 3: it all crumbling down this year. Otherwise, red Soux and
Speaker 3: probably a bit optimistic on I do like what they
Speaker 3: did during the off season, but I thought I was
Speaker 3: a bit optimistic, and you guys have got even further
Speaker 3: than I did, which was a bit surprising. And Yankees
Speaker 3: losing Cole makes makes a bit.
Speaker 1: Of a difference.
Speaker 3: And if I'm perfectly honest, if you want to talk
Speaker 3: about a lineup that's not deep, this is basically like
Speaker 3: potentially one of the worst lineups on a good team
Speaker 3: that you've ever seen. It's basically played the guessing game
Speaker 3: of who's going to be the second best.
Speaker 1: Hitter on that team? Do you know who it's going
Speaker 1: to be convincing?
Speaker 3: Do you think they're going to be have a WRC
Speaker 3: plus better than like one twenty?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: And so it's like it's judge and and whoever decides
Speaker 3: to turn up. Will they get a full season out
Speaker 3: of somebody like Wells or Rice? Will Jazz show what
Speaker 3: he can actually do? Will Bellager look like something that
Speaker 3: we know he can do but hasn't looked like in
Speaker 3: a while. There's lots of if butts, but like as
Speaker 3: if a butts a candy, candy, coconuts or whatever whatever
Speaker 3: their phrase goes, I I just don't see it there,
Speaker 3: so to me and I have the Orioles top. I
Speaker 3: think they have enough for the pieces in the right place.
Speaker 3: So obviously the loss of Burns is not good. I'm
Speaker 3: frustrated because I still think the Orioles are a good team,
Speaker 3: but they could be better if they'd made those moves,
Speaker 3: and they would have really shown that they were the
Speaker 3: best team in the AL and that really would have
Speaker 3: put them in a much kind of like more competitive position.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I could move up on the Red Sox
Speaker 3: and the Yankees, and probably in the Blue Jays in
Speaker 3: the Rays. But that's just my reasoning for them being
Speaker 3: so low is that I think they're going to do
Speaker 3: bad and they're going to trade.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what numbers are you you given us for
Speaker 1: the division? Then?
Speaker 3: So I have ninety wins for the Orioles, I have
Speaker 3: eighty six wins for the Yankees and the Red Sox.
Speaker 3: I have seventy seven wins for the Rays and seventy
Speaker 3: four wins for the Blue Jays.
Speaker 1: Okay, I look looking at these numbers, then I we're
Speaker 1: not that far off from each other. We potentially could
Speaker 1: avoid a tie break on this one if we're if
Speaker 1: we're you know, congenial to each other and you know,
Speaker 1: we reach out hands across across the the internet, and
Speaker 1: so let's start where we're very very close, then, so Orioles.
Speaker 1: First of all, Russell, you've got ninety gave and I
Speaker 1: are on eighty eight. I think eighty eight is fair,
Speaker 1: there isn't it.
Speaker 3: They can at least come up to eighty nine. Come on, rock, Well,
Speaker 3: there's two of us on eighty eight.
Speaker 1: And one of those ninety suspended. There's a suspended game somewhere.
Speaker 1: Let's let's go eight eight and a half.
Speaker 2: Go on, do eighty nine and then Russell osis.
Speaker 1: One eighty nine. Fine, I agree with that. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right? Where else are we close? We are? The
Speaker 1: Red Sox are an interesting one. The Red Sox are
Speaker 1: an interesting one. I have ninety, Gav has eighty eight,
Speaker 1: and Russell has eighty six. Very happy to meet in
Speaker 1: the middle. On on Gavin, yep, del yep, lovely eighty eight.
Speaker 1: It is for the Red Sox. Where else are we close?
Speaker 1: So the rest of all close ish, but not that close.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the Yankees. There I've taken I've
Speaker 1: gone high on the Yankees with ninety one. I'm admitting
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit high on the Yankees. There, Russell's
Speaker 1: really taught talk me around on the lineup side on that,
Speaker 1: so I am willing to drop. So so I was
Speaker 1: on ninety one, Gave had eighty nine and Russell had
Speaker 1: eighty six. I am. I am happy to go to
Speaker 1: the other side of Gavin and and me to eighty eight. Yep, yeah, lovely.
Speaker 1: So now we go to the non exciting end of
Speaker 1: the division. We go to the bottom a couple differ
Speaker 1: so the Blue Jays. So we've got Russell on seventy four,
Speaker 1: I am on seventy eight, and Gavin is on eighty four.
Speaker 1: I think what we're really looking at here Gave is
Speaker 1: is a drop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: What the tie break? Okay, we're gonna have to tie break?
Speaker 1: Tie break it is tie break, it is, now give
Speaker 1: us a category, no, go on.
Speaker 2: I think that they've got a really good lineup. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 2: they might trade Flattie and if they if they dumped
Speaker 2: some players and they think that that's the end of
Speaker 2: the window, then yeah, obviously I could be wrong, but
Speaker 2: I think it's a solid rotation, it's good bullpen, and
Speaker 2: it's it's a good lineup, it's definitely more than a
Speaker 2: five hundred team. In my humble opinion, I will choose
Speaker 2: a category of year they debuted in MLB.
Speaker 1: Okay, I like that one, right, and I've got this
Speaker 1: all lined up. So let's spin the wheel. Let's spin
Speaker 1: the wheel. It is spinning, it is spinning. Where's it
Speaker 1: gonna land? It's landed on Jeff Hoffman. Excellent, Jeff Hoffman.
Speaker 1: So Russell, do you want to take a stab at
Speaker 1: Jeff Hoffman to start with? Yeah, twenty sixteen. Okay, that
Speaker 1: was really confident.
Speaker 2: He's horrible, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Key, I am going to say twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: So then I've got to say twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to yeah, absolutely no.
Speaker 2: Well I'm not going to I'm going to say, oh,
Speaker 2: what did you say twenty Russell got twenty sixteen?
Speaker 1: I said twenty seventy.
Speaker 2: I'll say twenty eighteen. I'll go the other way.
Speaker 1: Okay. The answers a misery Grussel. He looked at this
Speaker 1: like two days ago, so that doesn't seem fair.
Speaker 3: Okay, looking up people that debuted for Colorado that turned
Speaker 3: out to be semi okay, but not for Colorado and
Speaker 3: he's right in there debuting back in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: That isn't in the weed search players who were sort
Speaker 1: of okay for Colorado brilliant. Okay, well there we go.
Speaker 1: Then we have we have Jeff Hoffman. We have seventy
Speaker 1: four wins for the Blue Jays. Gavin is furious, and
Speaker 1: that leaves us with the Tampa Bay Rays. So Russell
Speaker 1: had seventy seven, I had eighty one, and Gavin has
Speaker 1: eighty two. Oh, come I can, I can come down.
Speaker 1: That's eighty. I'll come up to eighteen. We can do eighty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not eight.
Speaker 2: Tiebreak again. Don't like this game.
Speaker 1: Because Russell always wins. I knew it was a bad idea,
Speaker 1: paying this with Russell, like, no, I'm not gonna win
Speaker 1: that I want. I want something I'm gonna win. So
Speaker 1: the Alias is going to finish with the Orioles winning
Speaker 1: it with eighty nine wins, and then we're going to
Speaker 1: have that's gonna be an interesting runoff between the Yankees
Speaker 1: and the Red Sox. With eighty eight wins, the Blue
Speaker 1: Jays are gonna be sorry. The Rays are going to
Speaker 1: be next with eighty wins, and the Blue Jays are
Speaker 1: going to be basement dwellers with seventy four wins, which,
Speaker 1: now I say it out loud, does sound a little
Speaker 1: bit harsh, but too late. It is inked in right,
Speaker 1: so leaving us with the most exciting and best till last.
Speaker 1: We have left ourselves with the AL Central for our
Speaker 1: grand finish. So if we can reveal our predictions for
Speaker 1: the al Central, Russell our predictions for the AL Central, Wow,
Speaker 1: my eyes, my eyes. Okay, we are wildly differing on these,
Speaker 1: so I'll run down mine first. Then, So I've got
Speaker 1: the Twins winning the division. The reason I've got the
Speaker 1: Twins winning the division is I think they would have.
Speaker 1: I've got the winning with ninety and I think this
Speaker 1: is kind of where they should have been if something,
Speaker 1: goodness knows what the wheels hadn't come off towards the
Speaker 1: end of last season. They were on course, they were
Speaker 1: doing fine, and then it all went to hell. Now
Speaker 1: something's clearly happened, and what to my mind, something's clearly
Speaker 1: happened in that clubhouse and they weren't able to pull
Speaker 1: out the skid. So I'm going to say that the
Speaker 1: skid doesn't necessarily happen, and they do end up more
Speaker 1: sort of where their natural talent says they should do.
Speaker 1: And that's why I've got the Twins winning ninety games.
Speaker 1: Following them in the division, I've got the Tigers. I
Speaker 1: think they continue the good work they were doing. I
Speaker 1: think they're exciting, they're young, they're you know, there may
Speaker 1: be time to move on from havy buyers, but otherwise
Speaker 1: they're good. There's a lot of good stuff going on here.
Speaker 1: They've moved talks into the outfield, I believe now, is
Speaker 1: that right? They're they're trying some stuff they got to.
Speaker 1: They've got a manager I think who is is genuinely
Speaker 1: considered to know what he's talking about. So I've got
Speaker 1: the Tigers playing eighty eight wins, dropping them to the Guardians. Guardians,
Speaker 1: goodness knows what they're doing to keep going the way
Speaker 1: they have, Like the pitching works. I don't understand why, why,
Speaker 1: how they've managed to keep going with the with that lineup,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's it's fine. They'll be all right.
Speaker 1: Eighty four wins. They're not gonna set anything on fire here,
Speaker 1: but they're going to be fine. Uh. And then then
Speaker 1: I've got the Royals. I think the Royals last year
Speaker 1: I think they're going to fall back a bit. I
Speaker 1: think a lot went right for the Royals this last year.
Speaker 1: I think the Royals we were sort of playing that
Speaker 1: ninety percent tile of everything. They've got some some absolutely
Speaker 1: great guys in there, you know that a lot of
Speaker 1: the supporting cast, the Patscatinos looking great. They'll be obviously
Speaker 1: Bobby Witt is going to be leading leading that that
Speaker 1: team again. But the pitching side, I think there's there's
Speaker 1: some regression to come. And that's why I only have
Speaker 1: the Royals winning seventy five games, maybe little sting seventy
Speaker 1: five games there, and then at the bottom the White
Speaker 1: Sox they were dreadful. Then they're going to be dreadful again.
Speaker 1: They've not really done anything to sort out that team.
Speaker 1: I can't see. You know, definition of insanity is doing
Speaker 1: the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Speaker 1: They did it all last year by not changing that
Speaker 1: team up and trying out a bunch of young guys,
Speaker 1: and I think they're probably not doing the same thing again,
Speaker 1: So I don't see them them. You know, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit aggression to the mean, But that's
Speaker 1: why I've only got fifty wins for the White Sox.
Speaker 1: That's you know, that's it as there's not much, not
Speaker 1: much going on there. Come at me, Come at me.
Speaker 1: We're already different on this one. Russell, what you got?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we might as well started the White Sox.
Speaker 3: I have about fifty six. I thought I was going
Speaker 3: to be the high on this. I am the high,
Speaker 3: but not as much high. God was definitely suggesting at
Speaker 3: some point on the weekend that he was going to
Speaker 3: throw out a thirty number here. So he's come back
Speaker 3: to some sentence on what sort of been this team
Speaker 3: is bad, they'll be better than last year maybe because
Speaker 3: if they're not better than last year, they have something
Speaker 3: institutionally wrong at that club that is beyond just like
Speaker 3: having a terrible owner and like that. There is something
Speaker 3: wronger even like at the player development level, so bad
Speaker 3: that it's unbelievable. I have the Twins at seventy seven
Speaker 3: being the fourth best team.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're good.
Speaker 3: I think that like they showed what they were capable
Speaker 3: of last season. You can suggest maybe they've had like
Speaker 3: some additional players come through or picking up like Ty
Speaker 3: France and Harrison Bader. Is is that really what you
Speaker 3: think is going to make them improve as a team.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I think they're full of injury prone players. They're going
Speaker 3: to rely on platooning between like Walner and like Austin Martin,
Speaker 3: Harrison Bada and Trevor Larnak and Austin Martin or whatever.
Speaker 3: I just do not think they're a good team. And
Speaker 3: I think they'll have to flip during the middle of
Speaker 3: the season when they're being bad. So that's that Guardians.
Speaker 3: I generally do not know. But I've put eighty one
Speaker 3: wins here. This is the ultimate passing of the buck
Speaker 3: here from the person who is the Guardians fan. There
Speaker 3: is a piece coming gave. I do promise that. I
Speaker 3: did say I would do it on the season preview
Speaker 3: for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: It's half written.
Speaker 3: I've done my pessimism, but I said I would do
Speaker 3: some optimisms as well, and I need to kind.
Speaker 1: Of come up with the optimism. But yeah, I just
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 3: This team is like can you can't expect your four
Speaker 3: relievers to pitch below two A or A again, It's
Speaker 3: just you cannot expect that. So who's actually going to
Speaker 3: like throw the innings and do good enough. I just
Speaker 3: don't know, and then from a hitting perspective, it's like,
Speaker 3: well there's Jose, and then who else actually turns up?
Speaker 3: Like Kuan and Thomas could be both very good corner
Speaker 3: outfielders and that could put a Cleveland into a good position,
Speaker 3: but they could also both be pretty gash again and
Speaker 3: like this team could not be not be good. So
Speaker 3: they're solidly as they had an eighty one win team,
Speaker 3: and then the Tigers and the Royals are like the
Speaker 3: use that both teams are kind of coming through. I
Speaker 3: think that they've both got top of the rotation talent
Speaker 3: that will be just get them that kind of fifteen
Speaker 3: sixteen wins potentially twenty wins in a season that kind
Speaker 3: of ties you over and gets you into a position
Speaker 3: that you can be challenging for a divisional title or
Speaker 3: challenging kind of like for player contention and that sort
Speaker 3: of thing. So yeah, I've got them both at eighty
Speaker 3: six wins and tied winning the division.
Speaker 1: GAV could GAV come back?
Speaker 2: I do you really like the structure of MLB with
Speaker 2: the six divisions, because it does make it it makes
Speaker 2: it really competitive for so many of them, and the
Speaker 2: AE or Central Chicago White Socks are obviously the worst
Speaker 2: team in the sport, but the others. I've got it
Speaker 2: going from eighty two for the Guardians and the Tigers,
Speaker 2: eighty three for the Royals at eighty seven for the Twins.
Speaker 2: Thinking about it, maybe I want the Guardians on the
Speaker 2: eighty seven and the Twins on a eighty two. I
Speaker 2: think it could be changed any way. Injury has a
Speaker 2: lot to do with it. I think the Guardians are
Speaker 2: better than you're giving them credit for. They do have
Speaker 2: your breakout pick of Brian Rocchio, and they have is
Speaker 2: Gavin Williams. Willow to be a breakout pick.
Speaker 1: Probably like maybe not have enough time.
Speaker 3: If you think he's actually going to have like a
Speaker 3: four win season, then definitely.
Speaker 2: And then whether that's you know, say four win season
Speaker 2: that gets me onto the White Sox because they had
Speaker 2: two four win pictures last year and they haven't got
Speaker 2: them this year, so they are significantly worse. I was
Speaker 2: going to yeah, I was going to put them down
Speaker 2: for thirty nine wins, but I can't actually remember the
Speaker 2: whole conversation because we had had a few beers. But
Speaker 2: on Friday, Russell was telling me that you could roll
Speaker 2: out a bunch of guys any old bods and they
Speaker 2: would still get sixty wins something like that. I can't
Speaker 2: remember the exact not sixty.
Speaker 1: Quard A players. Basically that's a whole the definition of
Speaker 1: what replaced A today, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So basically when you were sort of saying, you
Speaker 2: guys around the table, that's what I thought it was, since.
Speaker 1: We were all quard A players.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The Tigers are another interesting one because they were
Speaker 2: so good in the second half of last year, yet
Speaker 2: they didn't really outperform their metrics. They should have been
Speaker 2: that good, so they haven't really changed that much. Riley
Speaker 2: Green he could be he could be MVP. I like
Speaker 2: Riley Green a lot. Yeah, So I've got them for
Speaker 2: eighty two, but maybe that's too low. And the Royals
Speaker 2: Jonathan India. That's a nice acquisition, isn't it. He's going
Speaker 2: to score at least one hundred runs? But maybe they
Speaker 2: overperformed last year with Seth Lugo and Cole Reagan's I
Speaker 2: don't know really, So what we've got start with the
Speaker 2: White Sox because that was quite easy one, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: Uh. Yeah, So looking back over what we've got the yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're saying you could have gone thirty nine here.
Speaker 1: You know, I think you've been a bit generous. To
Speaker 1: my mind, I think we're looking at the Bottoman of
Speaker 1: the fifties. What have they done to make this team
Speaker 1: better than the drivel they were last year?
Speaker 2: Well, Mike Talkman, yes, okay, yeah, Brandon Drury, Travis Jenkowski.
Speaker 1: Just I am Amazedenkowski is still playing. Okay, I mean I.
Speaker 2: Haven't traded away Lewis Robert yet yet.
Speaker 1: I can maybe come up a win or two, but
Speaker 1: I can't see it's going much higher than fifty one
Speaker 1: fifty two wins. I think, honestly, this team is absolutely
Speaker 1: the pits. Come on, Russell, can you can you come
Speaker 1: up at all? Come down?
Speaker 3: Sorry, I can come down, like yeah, anywhere like in
Speaker 3: the fifties is like is fasible to me. I just
Speaker 3: chose fifty six somewhere in the middle, so like, if
Speaker 3: you want fifty three, I'll come down to fifty three
Speaker 3: on fifty two.
Speaker 1: If I'm honest.
Speaker 2: What did the other projection system say?
Speaker 3: Well, they project sixty because effectively, it's really hard to
Speaker 3: project to be like that bad like even like they said,
Speaker 3: like the Dodgers, if you actually predict one hundred lost team,
Speaker 3: you are a very bad team. Like the only reason
Speaker 3: why the Rockies are predicted much worse than the White
Speaker 3: Sox are is because the Dodgers, the d Backs, the
Speaker 3: Padres are all better than the Tigers that wins, the Royals,
Speaker 3: and the Guardians, So they're just gonna lose more games
Speaker 3: against those teams. Not necessarily the fact that the Rockies
Speaker 3: are out that much of a worse team than the
Speaker 3: White Sox. I think it is an indictment that those
Speaker 3: other teams aren't in the central, aren't that good, which
Speaker 3: is why the White Sox will get something in the fifties.
Speaker 2: Do you know that they they swept the Angels last year.
Speaker 3: I Eveland lost more games to the White Sox, I
Speaker 3: think than any other team.
Speaker 1: So I saw the Race played the White Sox last year,
Speaker 1: and it was the the White Sox were sixteen and two,
Speaker 1: and I managed to see one of those two, sorry
Speaker 1: two and sixteen? Might I saw one of those two?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I was impressed by that. Okay, so we're
Speaker 1: hovering lower fifty surely right, surely can we say fifty two? Yep,
Speaker 1: fifty two, Yeah, fifty two, fifty two, lovely one.
Speaker 2: I'm regretting not being more bold and going for thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Right, So let's have a look at the Guardians. Then
Speaker 1: we're all closes on the Guardians. Russell is on eighty one,
Speaker 1: being being sad on his own team, and we've all
Speaker 1: actually predicted our own teams as being pretty much on
Speaker 1: five hundred. So Russell predicted eighty one for the Guardians,
Speaker 1: Gavin has predicted eighty two, and I had eighty four.
Speaker 1: I am happy to come and meet meet around the
Speaker 1: Gavin mark at eighty two, not go only two. That's fine, great,
Speaker 1: it's to eighty two. Then we start diverging a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the Tigers with a least of versions
Speaker 1: of the remaining ones. So and we've got I'm fairly
Speaker 1: high on the Tigers at eighty eight. Russell isn't far
Speaker 1: behind me on eighty six. Gavin, however's got the Tiger's
Speaker 1: on eighty two, which my stingy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm happy to go up a couple.
Speaker 1: Can you get you up to eighty five? Five?
Speaker 2: Eighty five? I could do eighty five.
Speaker 1: Go. We're getting through this fantastic. This is where we
Speaker 1: start to get unstuck though, Royals, I think we're we're
Speaker 1: tricky here. So I've got the Royals on seventy five.
Speaker 1: I do not see that they can redo what they
Speaker 1: did last year. I really do not see that their
Speaker 1: their pitching is going to stand up to that. And look,
Speaker 1: seventy five isn't that far under under five hundred.
Speaker 2: It's quite a long way.
Speaker 1: Gavin has eighty three, so still eighty three, and Russell
Speaker 1: is on eighty six. I cannot see how we avoid
Speaker 1: a tie break over over the Royals. Did you make
Speaker 1: a break? Did I? Whether I make a I didn't
Speaker 1: make a bloody type over? How rude? How rude?
Speaker 2: It just seems Yeah, it seems ludicrous that you'd think
Speaker 2: that they were solo.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be bold here as well. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: come roy double tie breaker to finish it off, rob,
Speaker 1: let's let's start having Kansas City roles tiebreaker. I will
Speaker 1: pick a Kansas City tiebreaker. Then I'm going to say
Speaker 1: the number they currently wear on their back. So let's
Speaker 1: pick ourselves a Royal. It's going into the wheel. The
Speaker 1: wheel is spinning. Where's it going to land? Who knows?
Speaker 1: Who knows? Who half these people are? It's spinning. It's spinning.
Speaker 1: We have two blanks. For some reason, it's landing on
Speaker 1: a blank, so we're spinning again. Bobby Witt Junior. Bobby
Speaker 1: Witt Junior. I I must say that I have no
Speaker 1: idea who numbers for like, I know a couple of rays,
Speaker 1: but that is about it. Bobby Witt Junior. I'm going
Speaker 1: to guess at fourteen two, I thought it was thirteen.
Speaker 1: You're thirteen. Yeah, okay, all right, I have get him up.
Speaker 1: I think I can find this one. Bobby Witt Junior. Seven.
Speaker 1: According to Baseball number seven, seven, gav was closest. I
Speaker 1: think was closest. We get the gave result here, which
Speaker 1: was the outlier? No, God was the middle one over
Speaker 1: the middle man. It's fine, okay, no problems. Fine right,
Speaker 1: let's finally then, who thought we were going to finish
Speaker 1: this with the the highs of the Minnesota Twins. But
Speaker 1: we're clearly, very clearly, very divergent on this. I'm on ninety,
Speaker 1: Gavi is on eighty seven, and Russell is on seventy seven.
Speaker 1: So as ludicrous as you think my prediction for the
Speaker 1: Royals was, this is possibly even further away from the mean.
Speaker 2: Can you easily see what it should be to make
Speaker 2: everything tally up.
Speaker 1: Russ um easily.
Speaker 3: No, but I can do Chris do some maths if
Speaker 3: you're all willing to vamp like thirty seconds, yes, what was.
Speaker 1: Whilst Russell is Whilst Russell is doing the math for us,
Speaker 1: let's do some of our outro first, Gab, Can we
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the website at the moment,
Speaker 1: So we've we've been going through the season previews. Where
Speaker 1: are we up to with the season previews on the
Speaker 1: on the website at the moment.
Speaker 2: We're about halfway through and we're just going to go
Speaker 2: to two being released a day. Lots of people are
Speaker 2: a bit like russ who have said to me, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: I will send you my submission, but they haven't yet.
Speaker 2: So I figured that this weekend I am going to
Speaker 2: be editing lots and lots of previews. But it this
Speaker 2: is one of the real great things about backflips and Nerds,
Speaker 2: and it's nothing to do with me. It's the guys
Speaker 2: who were doing it beforehand. Is that anyone can submit
Speaker 2: an article and now we've got thirty different British writers,
Speaker 2: British fans who just turn their hand at writing and
Speaker 2: they're submitting a preview about so it really is becoming
Speaker 2: a great community to be part of.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I've got it. The first thing I'm going
Speaker 1: to do when I read it. I know. I noticed
Speaker 1: today we've got the Tampa Bay Raised season preview by
Speaker 1: Mark Stranger has gone up. Haven't had the chance to
Speaker 1: read it yet, but that is that is where I'm
Speaker 1: going too, straight after we finish here, so half the
Speaker 1: team's there, the other half coming. And it's not just
Speaker 1: it's not just season previews, as there's there's so much else.
Speaker 1: What can you pick out a couple of other highlights,
Speaker 1: something something to go back and have a look at.
Speaker 2: Gav Well one of the recent ones that we're still
Speaker 2: waiting for Russ.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a number.
Speaker 2: One of the recent ones that I did was trying
Speaker 2: to be a bit controversial, was that now that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump has decided that he will pardon Pete Rose, who
Speaker 2: will be the next person to be red cocketed back
Speaker 2: into MLB. So then I was thinking it, wonder Franco,
Speaker 2: maybe Trevor Bauer. There are a few others on there excellent.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's you know, we have some edge
Speaker 1: as well. There are some country obviously on the website too.
Speaker 1: It's not just fluff pieces, so that that is excellent,
Speaker 1: So do get over to the website because, as I said,
Speaker 1: it is our community. This is this is this is
Speaker 1: a lot of where we started. This podcast well, started
Speaker 1: by four guys talking about baseball, but it's very very
Speaker 1: quickly followed up by a whole bunch of very very
Speaker 1: passionate people here putting stuff down on paper. That's how
Speaker 1: you know, Russe and I got involved with the podcast
Speaker 1: initially as well, was was by putting pen on paper
Speaker 1: and just giving it a go. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: yet you've got an idea, you may only need one
Speaker 1: idea if you only come with one piece and that's that,
Speaker 1: that's no problem at all. But if you've got that
Speaker 1: that piece in you, please get down on a piece
Speaker 1: of paper because we want to read it and this
Speaker 1: is a great place for us to get started on
Speaker 1: and get involved in the community. Anyway, moving us back
Speaker 1: over then, so Russell, you did some maths. What have
Speaker 1: you discovered?
Speaker 3: If you want this to add up to twenty four
Speaker 3: hundred and thirty, which is the number of games that
Speaker 3: we've played, the Twins need to win sixty two games,
Speaker 3: So I think that's stingy. We've never adjusted to two
Speaker 3: hundred two and four under thirty in this podcast, unlike
Speaker 3: the eighteam which continue to do that. So I don't
Speaker 3: think we need to bother with that because I don't
Speaker 3: want to incrementally basically take two wins off every team
Speaker 3: to kind of get it or a win off every
Speaker 3: team to get it to where it should be. So
Speaker 3: I think we just go with a tiebreaker rob to
Speaker 3: finish this off.
Speaker 1: Well, that's essentially that means that you know, whatever Russell's
Speaker 1: picked is going to end up being the thing again.
Speaker 1: Fight gav do us the honors, then pick us one
Speaker 1: one final category for.
Speaker 2: The Minnesota Twins. Let's have.
Speaker 1: Strikeouts strikeouts, right, and we don't want pictures for strikeouts.
Speaker 2: Pictures or it could be hit us, couldn't it.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to leave the pictures in then, and
Speaker 1: this could get very very si we may have to
Speaker 1: have a second round, but okay, I'm gonna spin it
Speaker 1: for strikeouts. Fine, we got that is not the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Twins doing that again. Griffin Jacks.
Speaker 2: Griffin Jacks, so he is a picture.
Speaker 1: S Griffin. He is a picture absolutely.
Speaker 2: And I am going to say that he had eighty
Speaker 2: eight strikeouts last year.
Speaker 1: I think Gryffin Jacks is a good picture, and I
Speaker 1: think Griffin Jacks, I think he did slightly better. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to give him one hundred strikeouts. That's too many,
Speaker 1: far too many. Don't be ridiculous. I'm gonna get I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give him seventy seven strikeouts. Okay, what did you
Speaker 1: think out eight eight? Alright, eighty nine? Pretty certain, Rob
Speaker 1: Your first one was much closer than your second one. Oh,
Speaker 1: survey says ninety five strikeouts. Man, I would have I
Speaker 1: would have won it. I would have won it. So
Speaker 1: instead we have got Russell yet again, bringing our pessimistic
Speaker 1: result right down and putting us in seventy seven wins
Speaker 1: for the Twins, which I mean that that makes the
Speaker 1: division an absolute disaster again. So running from the top
Speaker 1: of that division, we are now predicting that the Tigers
Speaker 1: are going to win it with eighty five wins, The
Speaker 1: Royals are going to come second with eighty three wins,
Speaker 1: the Guardians are going to have eighty two wins. The
Speaker 1: Twins are going to be languishing down in fourth with
Speaker 1: seventy seven wins, and the White Socks are going to
Speaker 1: pull their bootstraps up and going to get a full
Speaker 1: fifty two wins this year, And that, as you have
Speaker 1: it is the B team's predictions for the year. The
Speaker 1: Twins are going nowhere near the playoffs, the Dodgers are
Speaker 1: an absolute dead sert, and we're really not sure who's
Speaker 1: going to win the NL East. So basically exactly the
Speaker 1: same as last year. I think that's it. That's it.
Speaker 1: So the A team are going to be doing their
Speaker 1: predictions very very very shortly, hopefully pull some stats together
Speaker 1: then and we can see how they come they did
Speaker 1: last year compared to the actual results and us and
Speaker 1: we'll see who is the champions. I believe we would
Speaker 1: be going three for three if we do all four
Speaker 1: for four? Is it? If we? If we? I think
Speaker 1: we basically wipe the wipe the floor with them every
Speaker 1: year so far, So hopefully we're going to continue that
Speaker 1: that trend. So do look out for that. As mentioned website,
Speaker 1: you've got all those team previews coming up. Keep reading
Speaker 1: them that, keep submitting that. If if you haven't done
Speaker 1: anything so far, please please please, we do want to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can find all that at bat
Speaker 1: flipsnerds dot com and of course you can find us
Speaker 1: in all the usual places bat Flips, unscored nerds on
Speaker 1: Twitter and backflips and Nerds on Blue Sky on Instagram
Speaker 1: and and all those other good things too. So any
Speaker 1: final words, Russell on the twenty twenty five season, It's.
Speaker 3: Going to be interesting, Like look at a lot of
Speaker 3: the divisions that we have multiple people kind of in
Speaker 3: and around the top. I don't think there are any
Speaker 3: clear favorites, like outside the Dodgers. So I think this
Speaker 3: is going to be a pretty amazing season and I'm
Speaker 3: looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: Cool gav I would give everyone a word of advice,
Speaker 2: if you want to save a couple of hours of
Speaker 2: your life, don't bother you into the A teams projected projections.
Speaker 2: Just have a look at the finishing position last year
Speaker 2: because they're undoubtedly just going to choose exactly the same
Speaker 2: those for those four. Don't think out of the box.
Speaker 1: Excell have done on that bombshell. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: That is That is time for us to end and
Speaker 1: we will see you all next time. Thank you very much,