Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am Darius Houstin, and we
Speaker 1: are back after a rather long hiatus. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot going on within the team and efforts to schedule
Speaker 1: have not gone well, but we've made it in time
Speaker 1: for a post trade deadline edition. And joining me to
Speaker 1: talk about all the activity is Rob Navera. Rob, how
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 3: I have a baseball injury. Actually, I'm really going to
Speaker 3: tell you and the listeners about I have a baseball injury, yes, sustained. Yesterday,
Speaker 3: I was in the park showing off a few dingers
Speaker 3: to my three year old nephew, and you know, I was,
Speaker 3: he was, he was watching, he was he was impressed
Speaker 3: about my my skills with a foam bat, and I
Speaker 3: swung for the moon, hit the hardest swinging bunt you'll
Speaker 3: ever see in your life, and then continued twisting and
Speaker 3: managed to dissiccate my knee for the seventh time. I've
Speaker 3: done that now, so I'm kind of used to it.
Speaker 3: This was like a partial disslication this time. So I am.
Speaker 3: I am on the I l because my power was
Speaker 3: so much that my body could not contain it. Wow,
Speaker 3: Well I didn't expect a bunt to be the cause
Speaker 3: of the well, I mean it was a swinging but
Speaker 3: like it was, I was going for the moon shot,
Speaker 3: so I was trying to you know, trying to impress
Speaker 3: the three year old, and yeah, ended up on my
Speaker 3: back howling for the moon instead.
Speaker 2: He stood there kind of.
Speaker 3: Looking at me, sort of thinking what do I do
Speaker 3: because you know he's a three year old not well
Speaker 3: versed in in physiotherapy. So yeah, no, that was that was.
Speaker 3: It was not my finest moments as onlookers sort of
Speaker 3: stared stared in christ Church Parks if you were there yesterday,
Speaker 3: I am still alive, and you saw a grown man
Speaker 3: almost crying, so excise not not for the over forties,
Speaker 3: I think is what I've learned here.
Speaker 2: You've toughed it out.
Speaker 1: I've definitely had the when you've been to the bat
Speaker 1: and cage and you realize how much you use your
Speaker 1: obliques whilst swinging, because after after you've taken like thirty
Speaker 1: or forty hacks and the next day you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: why do my sides all hurt?
Speaker 2: Like all of it?
Speaker 1: And they're like, oh, it's because I never do that
Speaker 1: motion ever, unless I'm swinging a baseball back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing wrong because my
Speaker 3: bingo wings actually hurt more than my sides when my
Speaker 3: knee hurts the most. But yeah, my bingo wings. Something
Speaker 3: about I don't know what I'm doing. But yeah, that's
Speaker 3: too much arm.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we'll do a BfN training course at some time.
Speaker 1: Ben can show us for what we're doing wrong.
Speaker 3: As long as he doesn't try to show us pitching yeshots.
Speaker 1: Trained the line trade deadline. Now, then we've got the
Speaker 1: important injury news out of the way. We should talk
Speaker 1: about the trade deadline, and there was quite a lot
Speaker 1: of activity. I think there was some concern that this
Speaker 1: would not be an entertaining deadline because of how many
Speaker 1: teams are kind of still in it, but actually quite
Speaker 1: a lot went down, and I think we should probably
Speaker 1: start with the team that got the big business done
Speaker 1: a little bit early, of course, and that's the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Dodgers. Who else acquiring Tarik Scuball, which has led
Speaker 1: to much in the way of Dodgers discourse of the
Speaker 1: Dodgers ruining baseball again? Do we need a salary cap
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So I guess I suppose to talk
Speaker 1: about scooball himself. Is there much to say other than
Speaker 1: that the Dodgers have made an already ridiculous team even better.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was never one of those ones who
Speaker 3: was on the Dodgers are ruining baseball game on that
Speaker 3: train of thought, and I think this might be the
Speaker 3: trade that a lot of people sort of have that,
Speaker 3: who are on the same same thing thinking as me
Speaker 3: is it's not ruining anything. There was a bit of
Speaker 3: a sigh. It's just a really I mean, of course
Speaker 3: it was. It was a exercising futility and inevitability that
Speaker 3: this was going to happen. And I still don't believe
Speaker 3: that the Dodgers are ruining the game. I think they
Speaker 3: put themselves in a position whereby this is going to
Speaker 3: keep happening for a little while. But it's it is.
Speaker 3: It's got to tire them. It's got to tires them.
Speaker 3: At least you maybe can say that you know the
Speaker 3: game is is still played. Well, it's great to have
Speaker 3: a great big baddie who is the big boss to
Speaker 3: vat at the end. As long as they do get
Speaker 3: beaten every now and again, but it certainly was a
Speaker 3: little bit exasperating and just a tad boring. It won't
Speaker 3: happen forever. I mean, we can talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about in a minute about how they've they've got this
Speaker 3: over other other teams, but you know, you know, these
Speaker 3: these long dynasties of greatness are always propped up by
Speaker 3: a lot of money. They're always propped up by having
Speaker 3: to pay guys to go, you know, into the latter
Speaker 3: parts of their careers. And eventually it might not be
Speaker 3: for another five years, might be another ten years, but
Speaker 3: eventually we're going to see the back end of those
Speaker 3: those longer Dodger contracts starting to burn them a little
Speaker 3: bit like the Yankees of the early noughties, where you know,
Speaker 3: you had those guys sort of or maybe maybe the
Speaker 3: mid to late naughties where they sort of sat there
Speaker 3: and they've they've started to age and they're no longer producing,
Speaker 3: and they're kind of bit stuck on the roster because
Speaker 3: you can't shift them because their money is too much.
Speaker 3: So discourse wise, I get it, I do get it.
Speaker 3: It is tiresome. I would rather he had gone literally
Speaker 3: anywhere else, But I still don't think we're at the
Speaker 3: sport is broken stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I don't think so, but I definitely do
Speaker 1: think that it will be used that way by Manfred
Speaker 1: and the owners. It's it's good leverage for them. But no,
Speaker 1: there were other teams that could have made this type
Speaker 1: of move and didn't I mean, as I think, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: as a fan of the Rays, that you had one
Speaker 1: of those teams.
Speaker 2: Them and the Brewers are.
Speaker 1: Probably the two things who I think were widely considered
Speaker 1: to have a better farm system than the Dodgers, and
Speaker 1: it sounded like nobody was willing to part with their
Speaker 1: big name, the Theo Gillins, the Hazes, smart days, Uh,
Speaker 1: just Rade the parlor, you know, And so I guess
Speaker 1: they went the next level down. But do you think
Speaker 1: there was a package the Rays could have put together
Speaker 1: to beat this if Gillan was included.
Speaker 2: Would that I've got it done? Definitely?
Speaker 3: I mean, there is absolutely no doubt for me that
Speaker 3: both the Brewers and the Rays have all the prospect
Speaker 3: capital they need in the world to be able to
Speaker 3: get to get that deal done. Absolutely, and they could have.
Speaker 3: They could have obliterated the offer from from Los Angeles
Speaker 3: if they really wanted to, the problem is they don't
Speaker 3: want to, and kind of for good reason. Los Angeles
Speaker 3: have put themselves in a position whereby they have so
Speaker 3: many players of skill and length on the team that
Speaker 3: they actually genuinely don't need them, the big guys from
Speaker 3: the from the minus so much so you could almost
Speaker 3: say that the the value of a Dodger's top level
Speaker 3: prospect is kind of less to them than it is
Speaker 3: to the rest of the league at this point, because
Speaker 3: they just don't need it. They have they have gone
Speaker 3: to the next level. They've sort of hit this this
Speaker 3: next plane whereby whereby there is a different value, different
Speaker 3: calculus to these guys. So yeah, of course the Rays
Speaker 3: could have done it. Of course the Brewers could have
Speaker 3: done it, But any other anything above what was done
Speaker 3: would be seen as a giant overpay for basically any
Speaker 3: team other than the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm not a big prospect guy, but I've heard of
Speaker 3: River Ryan, you know, and reading what other people are
Speaker 3: saying about as I hope not so much Brry Smith.
Speaker 3: But these these aren't nobody like. These are considerable traps
Speaker 3: to get back, and teams like the Brewers and the
Speaker 3: Rays and all of them. All of the other teams
Speaker 3: can't afford to push these guys for a rental like
Speaker 3: the Dodgers can. Now they could have done it, Yes,
Speaker 3: they could spend the money in the first place. This
Speaker 3: is all their own creating by not spending the money
Speaker 3: that they haven't spent in the first place. However, snapshot
Speaker 3: in time, it's just not worth it for these teams
Speaker 3: to get this this guy for a couple of months.
Speaker 3: So I understand it. It's it's it's it's it's a
Speaker 3: bit sad really that it's it's got to this point
Speaker 3: where a little bit sort of oh God, of course
Speaker 3: it's going to be the Dodgers again, and that's where
Speaker 3: we're at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I suppose the next step is are we getting
Speaker 1: the three pet I think that might be the thing
Speaker 1: that pushes the majority of people over the edge of
Speaker 1: you know, we all know how random baseball is, except
Speaker 1: for the fact that the last couple of years the
Speaker 1: Dodgers have actually won the World Series, and so if
Speaker 1: they've traded for Scuoball and then you know, we get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs and they're rolling out Scooball, Yamamoto, Glass
Speaker 1: now Snell as their rotation.
Speaker 2: Nobody runs off them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, get I get that some people we use that,
Speaker 3: but I still don't think it's it's it's enough. Even
Speaker 3: if they do three p I mean, it's we all know,
Speaker 3: it's still you would take the odds of everyone else
Speaker 3: versus the Dodgers in the postseason at the moment, they
Speaker 3: were very lucky to get past both the Mariners and
Speaker 3: sorry not Marin's. To get past the Blue Jays last year,
Speaker 3: it was you know, there was times that they could
Speaker 3: have lost that and they didn't look like the best
Speaker 3: team all the way through that. So I think there's
Speaker 3: still more chance that we don't have Dodgers Dodgers wringing again.
Speaker 3: You know, if they get to the World Series, it
Speaker 3: probably will be the Dodgers again, because, let's face it,
Speaker 3: the AL and the NLR are unbalanced at the moment,
Speaker 3: but it's still a crapshoot. So if we get that third,
Speaker 3: let's let's revel in the fact that we're having this,
Speaker 3: this great villain. You know, it's good for the sport
Speaker 3: to have the big boss. As I said a little
Speaker 3: while ago, We've had it with the Yankees in the past,
Speaker 3: We've had it with the Cardinals, in the past. Fine,
Speaker 3: let's have the Dodgers for a bit. Let's let's have
Speaker 3: the big bad Let's let's have someone on top of them.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing with the Afterrois a few years ago.
Speaker 3: They just you know, they had a couple of misses
Speaker 3: in between, and that's what happened here. Now, the Dodgers
Speaker 3: will probably lose this year, win next year. Doesn't change
Speaker 3: the calculus for me. Which one of the next two
Speaker 3: years they win, is still going to get X number
Speaker 3: of World Series in that time.
Speaker 2: You know what fair play.
Speaker 3: They've They've done it right. And it's not that they're
Speaker 3: not cheating, they're playing the game properly. They're just doking
Speaker 3: about a job of it. And that's that's what support is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, and I think it's true.
Speaker 1: I think we always get the reverse when there is
Speaker 1: no great, truly great team. Everybody's like, oh, there's no
Speaker 1: super team anymore. This is terrible, Like everybody's just mediocre.
Speaker 1: You can't you can't really win. So I can understand
Speaker 1: the frustration. But yeah, they've they've done a very good
Speaker 1: job pretty much everything over the last ten years or so,
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and that's how they can trade a guy
Speaker 1: like Hope and they still basically have an entire outfield
Speaker 1: full of you know, top fifty prospects coming down the pipe.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think there is an interesting period coming up,
Speaker 1: Like you say, when when Betts and Freeman Andania are
Speaker 1: all in there, you know, late thirties. You know, what
Speaker 1: is that going to look like? Because those guys are
Speaker 1: still going to be on the team. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's coming that time. And can they replace all of
Speaker 1: those Hall of Fame level players at the same time,
Speaker 1: It's going to be a little bit of a challenging
Speaker 1: for a team like the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: I think shifting will be the hard bit. I think
Speaker 3: shifting them, I mean they can. Yeah, they're on such
Speaker 3: big money because because of what the Dodgers can do,
Speaker 3: who's going to take on those contracts when they get rubbish?
Speaker 3: You know, like no one's picking up Mike Trapp now,
Speaker 3: you know, because he's not the player he was on
Speaker 3: that kind of money. So I think they could find
Speaker 3: themselves back into that corner a little bit. You could
Speaker 3: be Elsbury style and.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe they just eat the money Dodger style. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot a lot of money there to be
Speaker 1: to be eating and yeah, even if they do do that,
Speaker 1: it's still you know, the guys you're replacing, these a
Speaker 1: generational talents. You're not just saying, oh, we need an
Speaker 1: above average guy. You know, they are all going to
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. So it's it's going to be
Speaker 1: a very interesting period in a couple of years, I
Speaker 1: think for the Dodgers. But I'm sure in the moment
Speaker 1: people are fed up, So we'll see see how the
Speaker 1: playoffs go. A team for who hasn't really panned out
Speaker 1: their rebuild the way that they would have liked is
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Orioles. And I think nothing could have been
Speaker 1: more symptomatic of that than the trade they made with
Speaker 1: the Red Sox, trading away Adlie Rutchman for a whole
Speaker 1: package of prospects, including Anthony Ironson, who I think is
Speaker 1: believed to be the best of the bunch. I think
Speaker 1: it was three of the Red Sox top five prospects
Speaker 1: the Oriols got back, so good prospect hall. But for
Speaker 1: a team that if you'd gone back five years and
Speaker 1: said who's the next big thing probably would have been
Speaker 1: the Orioles. And now, now do you look at this
Speaker 1: club and an avatar, probably Rutchmand, the avatar of that rebuild,
Speaker 1: being traded away to a division rival, though yet less. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the look for Michael Lias is not good. So what
Speaker 1: did you make of this one?
Speaker 3: And what do you think this this puts the Orioles
Speaker 3: going forward? I think I think this is odd from
Speaker 3: both sides. And maybe we'll come on to the Red
Speaker 3: Sox a bit later, but the Oriols is another We're
Speaker 3: starting quite depressing here with the things talking about. And
Speaker 3: there's another depressing story, you know, like like come on,
Speaker 3: like we could use another team on a bit of
Speaker 3: an up because there are plenty of mediocre and worst
Speaker 3: teams at the moment. We could use another big team
Speaker 3: on the up. And it's just not worked at Baltimore.
Speaker 3: But we Layman could see this this coming. You know,
Speaker 3: we've been bemoaning their lack of starting pitching for years.
Speaker 3: Just spent just a little bit of money on starting
Speaker 3: pitching would have made the difference. You know, this this
Speaker 3: team had that one one year which yeah they were
Speaker 3: playing well above their well above their their their talent level,
Speaker 3: but you know it was all there. There was there
Speaker 3: was enough there to get a couple more bits and
Speaker 3: go for it, and they haven't. And you know, you
Speaker 3: know they they had the false dawn of the new
Speaker 3: owner as well, and that's not really panned out, you know,
Speaker 3: And when do you start pointing fingers?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Is it ownership? Is it Michaelias?
Speaker 3: Is it? Is it? Their player development? I don't know,
Speaker 3: But it's not worked. And it's it's why is it
Speaker 3: not worked? It mean to be an oral must be
Speaker 3: pretty miserable. You've had, You've had years of being one of,
Speaker 3: if not the worst team in the league. This was
Speaker 3: this was the great reawakening and it's it's not come.
Speaker 3: It's not happened. I mean, where would you point the
Speaker 3: finger here? Is it? Is it? Elias? Is he is? He?
Speaker 3: Is he not done enough?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Is Is that got to be where the where the
Speaker 3: fault lies?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I think you hit the nail on the
Speaker 1: head with with one element of that with the pitching.
Speaker 1: You know, we've consistently said where is the pitching? They
Speaker 1: were very hitting focused in their prospector rebuild, and clearly
Speaker 1: the strategy seemed to be kind of what the Astros
Speaker 1: had done when Elias and Midel were there. We'll get
Speaker 1: the hitting sorted, and then we'll go out and trade
Speaker 1: for adjustin Erlander or whoever it might be. Uh, And
Speaker 1: you know they did, they did make that Corbyn Burdens
Speaker 1: trade mid season one year, but that was an expiring
Speaker 1: and you know they didn't didn't bring him back. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all been very mid rotation. We're not going to
Speaker 1: make the big splash and they've just that's that's one
Speaker 1: side of it. But then I think you've also got
Speaker 1: to point the finger at some of the sort of
Speaker 1: the hitting development, the finishing off of these guys.
Speaker 2: When you look at.
Speaker 1: Mayo or Cowser or any any number of these highly
Speaker 1: touted hitting prospects that were supposed to come up and
Speaker 1: form the core of this next Orils team. You know, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Richmond has been good, but he's not been consistently good.
Speaker 1: And I don't think he's quite hit the heights people
Speaker 1: expected after his rookie year. And then even Gunner Henderson,
Speaker 1: as you know, he was fantastic his first couple of
Speaker 1: seasons and you know, he's still a good player, but
Speaker 1: it no longer looks like this is a you know,
Speaker 1: sort of elite court they're going to build around and
Speaker 1: the rest of them have not worked out at all,
Speaker 1: and so, yeah, the lineup is not crushing, and the
Speaker 1: pitching has been pretty disappointing, and so yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I think it is a compilation of things, but that
Speaker 1: reluctance to make any investment in pitching of consequence. And
Speaker 1: then just like I don't know what the cause is
Speaker 1: with these guys, but you know a lot of them
Speaker 1: were sort of seen to be can't miss type hitting prospects.
Speaker 1: They've all been pretty bad. John Westburg as well has
Speaker 1: not not panned out to a GRADEA. He has a
Speaker 1: lot of injury trouble. But yeah, you could have listed five, six, seven,
Speaker 1: you know, Orioles top one hundred hitting prospects a few
Speaker 1: years back, and they haven't really got anything out of them,
Speaker 1: and that's that's really hit them hard now.
Speaker 2: So yeah, whether that's you know.
Speaker 1: All on Elias, I don't know, but I think you
Speaker 1: can certainly pin the I'm not going to spend big
Speaker 1: on pitching on him. And they had that that little
Speaker 1: window where they did look like they might be in
Speaker 1: the ascendency and they didn't they didn't capitalize on it
Speaker 1: with pitching, and now it looks like we're heading back
Speaker 1: into rebuilt territory.
Speaker 3: Or is it just the curse of Peter Lonzo where
Speaker 3: he goes the team's just inexplicably rubbish. It's been fine, but.
Speaker 1: It has been fine. Yeah, he's not He's not collapsed.
Speaker 1: To be fair, haven't been any better since he.
Speaker 3: Left they so no, no, he ruined it fully, I've
Speaker 3: just just just a moment I want to talk on
Speaker 3: the Red Sox side. There was a there was a
Speaker 3: lot of prospects, and again I'm not a prospect guy.
Speaker 3: I don't know my stuff particularly, you use certainly more
Speaker 3: read into that than I am. Was it overpay uh?
Speaker 1: I think it was pretty extreme. Yeah, I mean none
Speaker 1: of these guys. Again, we didn't see any of the
Speaker 1: you know, very tippy top best prospects in baseball move
Speaker 1: and that's been pretty consistent with you know, most deadlines
Speaker 1: in the last few years. Teams just don't seem willing
Speaker 1: to part with those types of players unless you know
Speaker 1: you're getting a guy with many years of control. Back Rutchman,
Speaker 1: It's is under control for a bit, but not not
Speaker 1: that long. But it is. Yeah, as I said, three
Speaker 1: of the top five prospects, so they've they've kind of
Speaker 1: gutted their system to go after him, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, they do have a need to catch he.
Speaker 1: Neither Wong nor Noveys had really done an awful lot
Speaker 1: this season, so it's a dressing a need for them.
Speaker 1: But I do wonder was it necessary to go quite
Speaker 1: this far, you know, were they competing with somebody or
Speaker 1: is this one good thing that Elias has done. You know, yes,
Speaker 1: that's been pretty good at trading for prospects in the past,
Speaker 1: as he somehow convinced that the Red Sox that this
Speaker 1: was the price they needed to pay. It does seem
Speaker 1: like an awful lot, but we do see a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys end up not panning out. I think
Speaker 1: they were going through some of the Dodgers pass trades
Speaker 1: on effectively wild the other day and sort of listing
Speaker 1: some of the prospects they traded away at the deadline
Speaker 1: for guys like you Darvish or Max Shazza, and most
Speaker 1: of them were either guys you were like, forgot he existed,
Speaker 1: or you know, they're kicking around the back end of
Speaker 1: someone's bullpen as a mediocre believer, or they've never made
Speaker 1: it to the majors. You know, there wasn't a lot
Speaker 1: of names there where you're like, oh, I bet the
Speaker 1: Dodgers are kicking themselves so that that guy go. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it kind of it does sort of look like a
Speaker 1: bit of an overpay on the face of it, especially
Speaker 1: given Rutchman's injury struggles. You know, he's on the il
Speaker 1: right now and the fact that he's never quite got
Speaker 1: back to that point that he did once. And I
Speaker 1: also think I think I saw a couple of make
Speaker 1: him the comparison that the race did much better, getting
Speaker 1: Liar Mix for a much lower price, who has been
Speaker 1: pretty equivalent in value to Rechimen.
Speaker 2: I think over the last year and a half.
Speaker 3: He's been he's been quite It's one of those quiet
Speaker 3: Marlin's players hidden at there in the back streets that
Speaker 3: you didn't see and no one really talks about.
Speaker 2: So I would tend to agree.
Speaker 3: But just just quickly back on the on the Red Sox,
Speaker 3: is there a bit of a bit of Breslow desperation.
Speaker 3: I mean he had to do something like he was
Speaker 3: being told, you know, cold boring, not doing anything, just
Speaker 3: filling around the edges, and all of a sudden he's
Speaker 3: conny early shot off to the Nationals for what looks
Speaker 3: like a bit of a phantom season from from Curtis
Speaker 3: made uh and uh, and then this huge trade. It's
Speaker 3: it's people are now saying nice things about Breslim again.
Speaker 3: But there was a there was a feeling you needed
Speaker 3: this a little bit, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: It does smack a bit of I need to show
Speaker 1: people that I'm not some sabermetric robot and I care
Speaker 1: about the team kind of vibe to me. Yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: to be honest that the Giants trade is the most
Speaker 1: shocking of all because you know, I've heard rumblings about
Speaker 1: clubhouse issues and things like that, but Marcelo Meyer basically
Speaker 1: just getting traded for a reliever. When you consider the
Speaker 1: dog that might have had six months ago, I would
Speaker 1: not have believed you. If you'd said the Giants are
Speaker 1: going to trade a reliever for Marcelo Meyer at mid season,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, what is what's happened? You know, as
Speaker 1: he'd broken his legs? What's going on here? So that one,
Speaker 1: most of all I think, is like, what why have
Speaker 1: they just given him away?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe there are things that we don't know about
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes. I have seen Red Sox
Speaker 1: fans talking about yeah, you know, bad clubhouse stuff, bad attitude.
Speaker 2: Maybe they just.
Speaker 1: Think we're not he needs to change it to we're
Speaker 1: going to wash your hands of him. But it's not
Speaker 1: like the Red Sox have had a good middle infield
Speaker 1: situation this year. You know, they're pretty struggled. You know,
Speaker 1: they're playing all sorts of guys. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: real sort of carousel of names in there. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he was, you know, not very long ago, considered to
Speaker 1: be one of the best prospects in baseball. So that one,
Speaker 1: most of all I think is is me thinking, what
Speaker 1: is Breslaw just like really trying to look like he's.
Speaker 2: Doing something here. Yeah, so how's that gone? How's that gone?
Speaker 2: It's not it's not gone.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, to be fair, I think Posey did
Speaker 1: a decent job at the deadline here. You know that
Speaker 1: up to this point that the job has not been good.
Speaker 1: But when you yeah, it's a it's a pretty good
Speaker 1: haul of guys they got. You know, they made I
Speaker 1: think five trades and really restocked their farm system and
Speaker 1: got some pretty well regarded prospects from a range of teams.
Speaker 1: So I think, yeah, for what we've traded away. I
Speaker 1: think he's done fantastically well, but you know the fact
Speaker 1: that they're in this position in the first place is
Speaker 1: not great. And you know, you look at the Davis
Speaker 1: contract and the Dumber's contract and you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how this is going, but this could be painful
Speaker 1: for a couple of years here.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, well he was, I mean you sort
Speaker 3: of think he was kind of another gem who needed
Speaker 3: needed a bit of a win. When you consider he
Speaker 3: is his own boss, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: It's still bizarre, you know, It's it's been coming up
Speaker 1: on two seasons now and it's still very strange that
Speaker 1: they made him gym with no experience in the first place.
Speaker 1: And to be honest, if you were to look at
Speaker 1: the last year and a half ago, yeah, this kind
Speaker 1: of looks like a guy who doesn't really know.
Speaker 2: What he's doing.
Speaker 3: Do you know what he's doing it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, throw enough darts, you'll hit the target occasion there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that Tony Vitello thing hasn't gone great either.
Speaker 2: That was the World recruitment. Yeah, so that was interesting.
Speaker 1: But I'm while we're on the topic of our teams,
Speaker 1: we've we've touched on Liam Hicks, how do you feel
Speaker 1: about the the Ray's deadline?
Speaker 2: Did you like what they did?
Speaker 3: I did? I did like what they did. I think
Speaker 3: they have Nickeled and Diamond a way quite well. I mean, uh,
Speaker 3: Freddie Perolta had a terrible first game the race last
Speaker 3: night against the Rockies. But this is a guy who's
Speaker 3: like double a double SiO winner. This time. He was
Speaker 3: traded from an absolute haul to the Mets in the
Speaker 3: first place, and everyone would say, wow, that's a really
Speaker 3: good move. That asked me, really good for the Mets.
Speaker 3: Of course they've they've met him and he's had that
Speaker 3: Mets the season, So you know, if you want someone
Speaker 3: to get something back that they once had when they
Speaker 3: were brilliant, I think he's in the right place of
Speaker 3: that kind of pitching development and sooth saying that they
Speaker 3: seem to have so and they've got him for bag
Speaker 3: of balls, like you know, it's I mean, it was
Speaker 3: involved in that trade was teamgb's Gary gil Hill. But
Speaker 3: other than that, I mean, they weren't they weren't top guys.
Speaker 3: They were all pretty low down guys, and so I
Speaker 3: think that's a good bit of business. You know, they
Speaker 3: needed another another starter, and they've got essentially someone who
Speaker 3: is less than a year away from being incredible. So yeah,
Speaker 3: really good. But moved there, Liam Hicks, we have already
Speaker 3: touched on again, they've sent a bunch of it's rude
Speaker 3: to say nobody's because these are all people they will have,
Speaker 3: you know, fabilis or whatnot. But from a from a
Speaker 3: baseball perspective, these are not high prospects.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: They are all like ranked like sixteenth nineteenth in the
Speaker 3: Raised system, so these aren't big guys. And then to
Speaker 3: add Tyler Wells on the end as well, for they've
Speaker 3: essentially sent the guy back to the Orioles that they
Speaker 3: got in the Shane Baz deal, like one of the
Speaker 3: players to be named, and they've got Tyler Wells now
Speaker 3: who was a more than serviceable reliever on top. I'm
Speaker 3: very happy we've got the Rays have done. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, there's sas currently sat on top of the
Speaker 3: American League, which none of us saw that coming. It
Speaker 3: doesn't look like they're going away anytime, particularly soon. There's
Speaker 3: there's a lot of good going on there. I wasn't
Speaker 3: at all happy with the lack of middland Field. We've
Speaker 3: got Richie Pelasius, Taylor Walls, the much belignd and Ben
Speaker 3: Williamson being being the middland field there and like, none
Speaker 3: of those guys are hitting a lick at the moment.
Speaker 3: So watching her rise go to the Phillies was tough
Speaker 3: because that that was another one that that all the
Speaker 3: rumors were there and like, this is exactly the guy
Speaker 3: we need and then that's that's that's obviously not happened.
Speaker 3: So you know, there's more to do, but it's it's
Speaker 3: a solid bee good stuff about. You know, it's one
Speaker 3: of the better deadlines than we've had in the last
Speaker 3: few years. We've shipped nobody out, So yeah, all good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're in a good position.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think Parolta has got a bit of
Speaker 1: a track record of being a very streaky especially like
Speaker 1: first half, second half. Guy I said, if anyone can
Speaker 1: unlock old Freddie Peralta, you would you would certainly bet
Speaker 1: on the raise And yeah, it's probably not going to
Speaker 1: go worse than it did for the Mets, So there
Speaker 1: is that element of it. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, Well, okay,
Speaker 1: well I think you know what else, Yeah, but we
Speaker 1: I think every team did something some more worth talking about.
Speaker 2: Than the others.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about the Angels because the Angels
Speaker 1: in a weird spot obviously, with interim GM John Mozeliak
Speaker 1: for some reason clearly decided he was not done with
Speaker 1: baseball after all and thought, what what would be a
Speaker 1: great idea, I'll come and work for Artie Moreno, But
Speaker 1: Artie seems to have let him do things, which is interesting,
Speaker 1: and some of them I quite liked. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: trading Ryan Zephy John to the Cubs and getting Moises
Speaker 1: Bisteros back. Pretty shocked that the Cubs gave up on
Speaker 1: him for a reliever. Has been good this season, to
Speaker 1: be clear, but again kind of surprised on that one.
Speaker 1: And then you know, Ose Soreano has been fantastic and
Speaker 1: he has under team control for a couple more years.
Speaker 1: But getting Argin Nimola, I think I think Nimola was
Speaker 1: the best spectraded deadline.
Speaker 2: There's sort of.
Speaker 1: One top twenty guy that went anywhere this this deadline
Speaker 1: fantastic work. So yeah, it's a very different looking team now.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to be pretty bad the rest
Speaker 1: of the way. I do the Angels depth charts at
Speaker 1: BP and I'm sat there going who who is playing
Speaker 1: here now and why it's really very difficult to figure
Speaker 1: out who's filling some of the innings. They just dfa
Speaker 1: to jul Haeseli, who's been awful as well, but that
Speaker 1: obviously means they've got a he's been dhing most days
Speaker 1: for them, So that's an offense first position that they
Speaker 1: don't really have anyone to play offense in it. So
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a painful couple of
Speaker 1: months to watch for Angels fans, But the futures looking
Speaker 1: a little bit brighter than it did a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago when they just they seem stuck, didn't they
Speaker 1: that nas cycle of oh we're contending, honestly, and it's
Speaker 1: like with who with you know, Adam Frazier at second base?
Speaker 2: So what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: So I quite liked what they did, and I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: to see where them Buzoliak sticks around to this interim
Speaker 1: period as well, or whether they genuinely are going to
Speaker 1: go out and hire somebody to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I agree, and I think how many
Speaker 3: how many sets of baseball fans would would be rejoicing
Speaker 3: in the tear down, And I think the Angels are
Speaker 3: the only ones. God bless them to do that, like
Speaker 3: they are. You know, the mangy cat hasn't eaten in
Speaker 3: three days? Is he only got three legs? And you know,
Speaker 3: we all know it needs put him down, but somehow
Speaker 3: it just keeps clinging on to the edge of life,
Speaker 3: like like it's this, it was the good thing to do,
Speaker 3: is finally put this team out.
Speaker 2: Of his misery, you know, like they've been hanging on.
Speaker 3: Like Joe Adele is the perfect picture of what this
Speaker 3: team is.
Speaker 4: Like he's he's just not that good, like but oh
Speaker 4: well we might be any day now, like, oh well,
Speaker 4: we'll pin our hopes one more year, like this time,
Speaker 4: this time he means it and no, gone finally say
Speaker 4: with logan and hoppy like oh oh no, no, he's
Speaker 4: great looking at this guy's go oh maybe maybe not okay,
Speaker 4: and it's go just get.
Speaker 3: Rid of him and they're gone. It's like a clean slate,
Speaker 3: you know, don't go back to their ex. Cut the cord,
Speaker 3: move on, find something new. And I think finally, finally
Speaker 3: the Angels have done that. And this has been a
Speaker 3: very very long time coming. I mean, yeah, how many
Speaker 3: four starts of there being of them making all the
Speaker 3: noises and then we're all, yeah, no, it's good, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's good. I think a funeral.
Speaker 1: I think a year ago you would have said there
Speaker 1: are two organizations that desperately just need to tear everything down.
Speaker 1: And it was to the Rockies and the Angels, and
Speaker 1: the Rockies, to their credit, actually went out in the
Speaker 1: off season and said, you know what, this ain't working.
Speaker 1: We've got to do something different. And I think there
Speaker 1: are some you know, positive signs coming out of Colorado
Speaker 1: that they are doing some different things. And so the
Speaker 1: Angels were left. You know, it's a bad sign, isn't it.
Speaker 1: When the Rockies have beaten you to the punch. It's
Speaker 1: like you're the one to everybody, you know, everybody watching,
Speaker 1: probably most people in the organization know that it's time
Speaker 1: for a big change, except for the guy at the top.
Speaker 1: So the fact that they finally seem to be getting there,
Speaker 1: it's good, even it's it's going to take a little while.
Speaker 1: But the alternative would have been whatever this muddling along was.
Speaker 1: And ye think I think all the Angels Founds are
Speaker 1: sick of that by now, so yes, absolutely, yeah, who's
Speaker 1: on your list?
Speaker 3: What did you like, I don't know if I liked
Speaker 3: it the Brewers. I wanted to talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about the Brewers. Brewers feel like they've been the anti Rays.
Speaker 3: They just didn't really get it done. Now it's the
Speaker 3: same criticisms of them not getting in there on the
Speaker 3: Scooball deal, but they've ended up with dustin May instead.
Speaker 3: Who find dustin May okay?
Speaker 2: Not amazing.
Speaker 3: They they've done a bit better for that, Like I
Speaker 3: like Jojo Romero. They picked up you know, and they've
Speaker 3: got Antonio Sensitela, so their bullpenny is a little better. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But have they moved the needle enough to say this
Speaker 3: is going to be any different from when they got
Speaker 3: absolutely wiped off the face of the earth by the
Speaker 3: Dodgers in the first first round of the playoffs last year? Like, well,
Speaker 3: what what's different here? What have they done to make
Speaker 3: it better? Not a lot really, And I think that
Speaker 3: that's the disappointment from the Brewers here, because they've they've
Speaker 3: got the farm, they've got. They do spend a bit
Speaker 3: of money occasionally when they need to. You know, they
Speaker 3: gave Yelli got great big contracts, so like they could
Speaker 3: have done it, and they just haven't, and it's just
Speaker 3: a little bit disappointing. I think I think Brewers fans
Speaker 3: would be a little bit disappointed too. Obviously, they're almost
Speaker 3: certainly gonna still be up and around the conversation come
Speaker 3: the end of the season, so they've done that bit
Speaker 3: of it. But I just don't see where the next
Speaker 3: step they should have taken has been taken. It's not
Speaker 3: there for me. It's a bit too safe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think this is the thing that's played
Speaker 2: them as well, isn't it.
Speaker 1: And we say that the playoffs are a cruptry, but
Speaker 1: one thing that's been pretty reliable last few years is
Speaker 1: that the Brewers getting to the playoffs and then their
Speaker 1: offense completely disappears and they just get rolled out quickly.
Speaker 1: And you know, the lineup has been solid again this year.
Speaker 1: You know, they're an above average offense, but they've hit
Speaker 1: the fewest time runs in the majors. And hitting ham
Speaker 1: runs actually correlate, it's pretty well with success in the
Speaker 1: postseason because it's a lot harder to string together those
Speaker 1: runnies against better pitching. And so, yeah, when you are
Speaker 1: dead lasting home runs and your problem previously in the
Speaker 1: postseason has been can you generate enough offense.
Speaker 2: I'm not loving it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think we could see a repeat, and
Speaker 1: I hope we don't because you know, I think they
Speaker 1: deserve better based on the way they've rather cleverly run
Speaker 1: that organization and tech things going. You know, it's been
Speaker 1: a pretty perpetual motion machine over there.
Speaker 3: There's a lot to line, no doubt, but they just
Speaker 3: haven't taken that step of it.
Speaker 1: They have not, and yet I would have liked to
Speaker 1: see them go out and get somebody with a bit
Speaker 1: of thump in the back to bost the lineup a bit.
Speaker 2: I think would have really helped them.
Speaker 3: Agreed, anyone else on your list?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I suppose the Tigers in an interesting spot,
Speaker 1: they could have gone either way. I think that division
Speaker 1: is still very winnable. You know, I'm still the White
Speaker 1: Sox have the whiff and frauds about them. To me,
Speaker 1: I'm not buying it. I think that pitching is going
Speaker 1: to at any moment. You could just tell me that,
Speaker 1: you know, they'd all collapse and they'll have the worst
Speaker 1: pitching start from the majors over the last month of
Speaker 1: the season, and I would believe you. I could see
Speaker 1: that happening, So I think it's yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1: You know, they've got a pretty good collection of guys.
Speaker 1: For Scooball, my is also going to be a free
Speaker 1: agent at the end of the season. You know, they're
Speaker 1: logical moves. It makes sense, but it is still a
Speaker 1: bit when you're in that position. You can you can
Speaker 1: still see, you know, the Vision titles very much within reach.
Speaker 1: I think it's definitely a possibility or a wild card
Speaker 1: spot with how weak the air is to trade away
Speaker 1: you know, your two best pictures. It's a bit a
Speaker 1: bit of a rough blow for the Tigers fans and
Speaker 1: maybe they'll do what they did a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago and go on a run. Anyway, even though they
Speaker 1: traded a absolutely some of their best studs that come
Speaker 1: back they had last year was a bit of a
Speaker 1: sort of done for them really because because there's an
Speaker 1: awful lot more value they could have had out of
Speaker 1: out of Miz and Scooball if they had shipped them out,
Speaker 1: even you know at the beginning of the season, there's
Speaker 1: they left a lot on the table. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: when you when you're saying what would have got them
Speaker 1: a top ten prospector if they dealt scooball this offseason,
Speaker 1: undoubtedly somebody would have given them one. That is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So timing is everything. And they've still got a lot
Speaker 1: of good young players here. You know, They've just brought
Speaker 1: Max Clark up. It's very exciting young player. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing more of him. So I think they've
Speaker 1: still in this division. Obviously, got a great chance to
Speaker 1: still be in it next season. But you know, when
Speaker 1: when you're less than five games out at the deadline,
Speaker 1: you don't really want to see your team dealing away
Speaker 1: the top top two starters at the deadline, do you.
Speaker 3: Absolutely? And it's been weird way that there's all those
Speaker 3: teams in the middle have really made different decisions despite
Speaker 3: being very very similar spots, you know, and that's it
Speaker 3: has been a long one. I think there's a couple
Speaker 3: of teams I would like to just touch on the Reds.
Speaker 3: We talk about the Reds because do they get the
Speaker 3: wrong day? I just genuinely, honestly think there's as the
Speaker 3: guy who does the paperwork off sick, or did they
Speaker 3: put the trade deadline in the wrong day in their
Speaker 3: diaries or something. You know that someone someone's job was
Speaker 3: to put the calendar entry in for oh yeah, it's
Speaker 3: the fourth. The trade deadline is the fourth uh into
Speaker 3: into and then of course it was the third. Is
Speaker 3: that what's happened here? Because they're in activity just it
Speaker 3: baffles me, absolutely baffling. And they've got so many guys
Speaker 3: who's who are about to be free agents and they've
Speaker 3: not got anything for them anything. They're just sat there
Speaker 3: that they are not going to be relevant coming into
Speaker 3: this season, and it's they've just left it all. I
Speaker 3: mean that we had, we had Tyler Stevenson crying on
Speaker 3: camera because he knew that the logical even he knew
Speaker 3: a man who loved, loved playing for that team knows
Speaker 3: the only sensible things for him to be traded away
Speaker 3: and have some value come back for him. And he's
Speaker 3: still there, Like you know, Heno Suarez brought Burke Brady, Singer,
Speaker 3: Millia Pegans, Tyler Stevenson like that. These guys individually, one
Speaker 3: or two of them all right, not great, But packet
Speaker 3: a couple of them up and send them off to
Speaker 3: a competing team that you're going to get a half
Speaker 3: decent prospect back.
Speaker 2: What were they doing? I mean, but I just don't
Speaker 2: get it.
Speaker 3: There's no sense to this other than then there was
Speaker 3: a power cut and you know in their offices or something.
Speaker 3: I have no idea what's happened here, but it's not worked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's really bizarre. You know that the last
Speaker 1: in a pretty competitive division, the NL is obviously a
Speaker 1: lot stronger. There's no chance they were going to go anywhere.
Speaker 1: It's been a pretty miserable year for them. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of baffling. It's not you know, there's always
Speaker 1: somebody looking for catcher help. There's always somebody looking for relievers.
Speaker 1: You know, these are pieces you can trade. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you look at some of the situations around
Speaker 1: the league. They could have got something. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that doesn't need to be you know, incredible, but they
Speaker 1: could have got something.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I am always interested in these. You know,
Speaker 1: it'd be great to know what was going on behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. You know, are they frantically working the phones
Speaker 1: and they just can't find the right fit, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody they're in the talks, and then you know, somebody
Speaker 1: else's just makes the trade with the team they were
Speaker 1: going to trade with, and you know, maybe they were
Speaker 1: just just close to all of these deals and they
Speaker 1: didn't quite get it done.
Speaker 3: But I also it's definitely gone wrong. It's not been
Speaker 3: by design. This like, this was not not a choice
Speaker 3: they'd made. Something has happened that was was less than ideal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you do.
Speaker 1: Also, I mean, it's very kids doing their homework. Isn't
Speaker 1: the trade deadline? I do wonder why a few more
Speaker 1: teams don't do what the Dodgers did, or you know
Speaker 1: the Red Sox did with needed early and just say hey, hey,
Speaker 1: can we do this a week before or something like
Speaker 1: give us a bit more time stuff out. You know,
Speaker 1: here's Tyler sevenson, you need to catch her. Let's let's
Speaker 1: figure it out now, you know what?
Speaker 2: Why wait?
Speaker 1: But yeah, something went quite wrong there and I don't
Speaker 1: know what it was, but you're right, and it's pretty bizarre.
Speaker 3: Last team I wanted to touch on. Really there's other
Speaker 3: teams that done some bits, but I liked what the
Speaker 3: Pirates did. The Pirates went out and they just got
Speaker 3: a bunch of half decent relievers and you know, if
Speaker 3: you look at a whole that team needed it was,
Speaker 3: it was half decent relievers. And they've they've just gone
Speaker 3: out and they've done it. And I've I think the
Speaker 3: Pirates might be all right this year. You know, it's
Speaker 3: been a long time coming again, but they're they're in it,
Speaker 3: and I think they may stay in it. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I really liked they've got Luke Weaver, Val Kirby Yates.
Speaker 3: I think that somebody else in there as well. I
Speaker 3: can't remember it now, but it was. It was a
Speaker 3: decent without and they didn't give up much. They didn't
Speaker 3: give up the farm, you know, they didn't give much
Speaker 3: at all. And they've they've they've sort of reinv into
Speaker 3: their bullpen and it looks an awful lot better than
Speaker 3: it did two days ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a big weakness for them. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've been surprisingly good offensively. They obviously have the rotation
Speaker 1: and the bullpen. It's been the big problem for them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's two overhaul.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, maybe five five new relievers they got
Speaker 1: in the end. Yeah, so good work they you know,
Speaker 1: I mean it's still it's still a bit Pirates, isn't it.
Speaker 1: And that you know, they didn't make the big expansion.
Speaker 1: We're not we're not talking trade for Mason Miller here,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think it's encouraging. You know, we've seen
Speaker 1: the Pirates do nothing a bit too often over the
Speaker 1: last few years. So heartening to see them say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got a decent chance this year, and
Speaker 1: we recognize what our weaknesses and we are actually going
Speaker 1: to go out and do something about it.
Speaker 2: It's quite un piratesy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's not just resigning the same outfielder which they've
Speaker 3: had for a million years, because they quite like him
Speaker 3: and we all like him, don't get me wrong, but
Speaker 3: you know that don't just resign touch and that's that's
Speaker 3: done again. Great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know it hasn't caused any bad vibes, not
Speaker 1: resigning cut It doesn't seem like So no, they got
Speaker 1: away with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got away with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think we won't go through all all thirty teams,
Speaker 1: but we did say we were going to talk a
Speaker 1: bit more about what we would have liked to see,
Speaker 1: both both realistic and perhaps a little more on the
Speaker 1: whimsical side.
Speaker 3: So what what have you got?
Speaker 2: What would you have liked to see happen at the deadline?
Speaker 3: We already mentioned I would have liked the ready to
Speaker 3: do something with the Midland field, So leave that one
Speaker 3: out there the Yankees. I would have liked to have
Speaker 3: seen the Yankees sort out catcher a captor who could
Speaker 3: who can can hit a right sorry hit lefties, sorry
Speaker 3: hit right T's Ali Sadwichers can hit lefties. The rest
Speaker 3: of them can't hit anything, and I think they're really
Speaker 3: suffering because of that at the moment, without without Judge
Speaker 3: and Stanton and Bellinger, their their offenses is way way, way,
Speaker 3: way way down. And they've obviously taken Ramos for the
Speaker 3: outfield off the Giants, which Lang long he'll be there
Speaker 3: for but he's a bit of a decent stock gap.
Speaker 3: But that that that catching situation for the Yankees just
Speaker 3: doesn't cut the mustard for me. I think they really
Speaker 3: needed to, you know, Stevenson, there you go perfect alreally
Speaker 3: straight straight up trade with the with the Reds would
Speaker 3: have done the job. And it's just not not not
Speaker 3: great there for the catch. So I would like to
Speaker 3: see the Yankees do a little bit more for catching there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the collapse of Austin Wells has been quite bizarre,
Speaker 1: really excul Yeah, but yeah, it's it's not a good
Speaker 1: situation over there. Good good news for you that they
Speaker 1: didn't do anything, I suppose because that well, yes, there
Speaker 1: is no lineup is looking held together by sticky tape
Speaker 1: at this point.
Speaker 2: No judge, no standon, no Bellinger.
Speaker 3: It's not not the best over there, right, everyone needs
Speaker 3: a break every now and again. Yeah, who have you got?
Speaker 3: Have I got?
Speaker 1: I'm I was a bit disappointed with Atlanta, to be honest.
Speaker 1: I know they're in a great position in the division,
Speaker 1: but I think everyone's also a little bit surprised at
Speaker 1: how good a position they are in. And it just
Speaker 1: felt like they didn't didn't swing for the offenses very much.
Speaker 1: You know, they made a lot of very low level
Speaker 1: moves and I think they could have done with starting.
Speaker 1: But you know, they traded for Tyler Marley from the Giants,
Speaker 1: who's not been very good from the Giants. You know,
Speaker 1: you're really really fishing around in the bottom end of
Speaker 1: the pool there. We know, we know the line GM
Speaker 1: did turn them down though, didn't he The grom did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you see, wanted to stay in Texas. So yeah, mate,
Speaker 1: maybe that you know, that was their big swing and
Speaker 1: they didn't pan out, and they said, you know what,
Speaker 1: We're just not gonna not going to bother with trying
Speaker 1: to go out and get another higher end starter. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that that would have been the kind of thing I'd
Speaker 1: have might to see the bravesy because.
Speaker 3: Maybe they thought it was done they had in the bag,
Speaker 3: and then him last minute saying actually no thanks.
Speaker 1: The shortstop situation is also not great. You know, they've
Speaker 1: mixed and matched and Mauritia de Bond's having a decent
Speaker 1: season for them, but you know he's not the best
Speaker 1: shortstop in the world. This Jim Jarvis kid, who I
Speaker 1: yah does sound a bit like a made up name,
Speaker 1: but he is. He's a real player, has played okay,
Speaker 1: but you know this is a a team that presumably
Speaker 1: has got world serious ambitions. Having a hole that shortstop
Speaker 1: is not what you want. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: zach Netto trade rooms. For example, if the Angels are
Speaker 1: truly saying this is full on rebuild, I fires Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I would have gone and said, what's it going to take.
Speaker 1: Let's push the boat out and see if we can
Speaker 1: get Neto on our team, because that would have felled
Speaker 1: a big hold from too. So yeah, either either pitching
Speaker 1: or starting pitching, or that shortstop hole. I think for Atlanta,
Speaker 1: I would like to see them do more about.
Speaker 3: I saw a decent trade that could have been made.
Speaker 3: The Cardinals have obviously been shipping some stuff out from
Speaker 3: the has been around for a couple of years. I
Speaker 3: think Alec Burlerson would have been a phenomenal trade.
Speaker 2: To the d Backs.
Speaker 3: I think that would have that would have worked. They
Speaker 3: would have He's got enough enough about him that he
Speaker 3: would have there would have been some some prospects going back,
Speaker 3: So it would be good for the Cardinals for where
Speaker 3: they are. The d Backs aren't out of it by
Speaker 3: any means. They're they're right in that in that fight,
Speaker 3: and they they have I think they're the fourth or
Speaker 3: fifth worst first base at the moment, So they really
Speaker 3: needed somebody who was who was a little bit more
Speaker 3: competent at first base. And I think that would have
Speaker 3: been a really nice fit for for for that for
Speaker 3: for a trade there, and that didn't happen, So I
Speaker 3: would have liked to have seen that. I think that
Speaker 3: would have worked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess they are just a bit more willing
Speaker 1: to part with nuke Bar than they were Balsam. I
Speaker 1: think he's maybe a free agent a little bit earlier,
Speaker 1: a little bit older obviously. I think, Yeah, Perhups and
Speaker 1: downs injury wise as well, Nuke Bar So I guess
Speaker 1: they've saw him as a bit more expendable in their rebuild.
Speaker 1: The Cardinals have also been better than I expected this year,
Speaker 1: probably better than they expected, I think, so, Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: they just see him as a key part. But I
Speaker 1: agree that the Diargenbacks could use the help over there
Speaker 1: would have been nice to anything really that big bat, Yeah,
Speaker 1: anyone better than than what they've had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, traffic cone with a with a broom duct take
Speaker 3: to it probably would have been better at this point.
Speaker 3: But that's mean. I didn't mean that.
Speaker 1: Poor poor Tim Tower, who is currently playing first base
Speaker 1: for the d Backs, I believe, well, yeah, quite yes,
Speaker 1: what was he hitting? He's sitting two eighteen, two seventy three,
Speaker 1: three seventy four. Not what do you want from a
Speaker 1: from an offense first position?
Speaker 2: It is not?
Speaker 1: So Yeah, that's that's a pretty clear hole that they
Speaker 1: could have done with filling.
Speaker 3: Is a couple of silly ones? You got any more
Speaker 3: sensible ones?
Speaker 2: Sensible ones? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean I remain eternally frustrated by the Guardians.
Speaker 1: Training for a foster Grover is nice and very Guardians
Speaker 1: thing to do, you know, He's been a very nice
Speaker 1: surprise for the Nats this year. But the lineup is
Speaker 1: still bad, isn't it like.
Speaker 3: That?
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Joe Adele Joe Odell's like, come on, Guardians, like,
Speaker 1: you don't have to have a bad lineup. You are
Speaker 1: allowed to have a good lineup. It's okay. But they
Speaker 1: just seem to approach the whole thing like no, no,
Speaker 1: it's okay, we can do this without any hitting. It's
Speaker 1: like this personal challenge they've set themselves pitching, only we're
Speaker 1: not going to do the hitting part. Where are there
Speaker 1: this year? They're twenty their twenty fifth rength offense in
Speaker 1: the game. And you know, we all watch that Guardian's
Speaker 1: line up in the playoffs last year and it was
Speaker 1: one of the most painful things, I think, obviously for
Speaker 1: quite a lot of it. So I just you don't,
Speaker 1: you don't have to do this. Surely there's somebody out
Speaker 1: there you could have gone gone a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: They've always got prospects to the Guardians. It's just, yeah, frustrating.
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised, but I wish just one of these
Speaker 1: years we'd see some sort of blockbuster Guardians trade for anyone,
Speaker 1: any hitting just shocked me one year.
Speaker 3: Year.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so on the on the less less serious side,
Speaker 2: perhaps what have you got?
Speaker 3: What Darius suggested to me before we did this, he said, well,
Speaker 3: we'll think about what else you would trade, you know,
Speaker 3: stadiums or mascots or stuff like that. And actually, before
Speaker 3: I even talk about any of these, have you ever
Speaker 3: heard of spacey the needle? When we come to talking
Speaker 3: about mascots, I.
Speaker 1: Think I like the phrase space see the needle, space
Speaker 1: the needle. Okay, I'm googling now.
Speaker 3: Terrifying, terrifying. It is a It is a like twelve
Speaker 3: foot tall monster with a space needle.
Speaker 2: Head, like really really long legs.
Speaker 3: It is an absolute silent hill creature of horror.
Speaker 2: This looks like I have a horror film.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's horrible. I was just doing a little bit
Speaker 3: googling around, just sing what I could think of, and
Speaker 3: then I saw that and had bloody nightmares. You're doing
Speaker 3: stop park the car, Google Google Spacy the needle. Make
Speaker 3: sure there's no kids watching.
Speaker 1: It's horrible if you're not in a position where you
Speaker 1: can stop the car. I would just described spacing the
Speaker 1: needle appears to be a man in stilts and a
Speaker 1: white suit. I assumes in the white suit they're all
Speaker 1: black and white photos really is. And his head is
Speaker 1: the like observation deck of the Seattle Space needle. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have a head, it's just the observation, like you
Speaker 1: can't see his head. It looks it literally looks like
Speaker 1: they've replaced it with that. Yeah, so that's a thing
Speaker 1: that happened, and yeah.
Speaker 3: It's horrible. Honestly, google it. It's it's haunt your nightmares anyway.
Speaker 3: So that that was a really nice arted down. I
Speaker 3: did think about what else could we trade New York
Speaker 3: teams to trade cities Yankee Field for the Vitality Stadium
Speaker 3: in Bournemouth. The reason being is they've had six rainouts
Speaker 3: since it last rained here at all. It has been
Speaker 3: so dry for so long, and they keep canceling games
Speaker 3: over in New York. So come here to Bournemouth, set
Speaker 3: yourselves up as the local team. Enjoy never having to
Speaker 3: cancel the game again, because I don't think it's ever
Speaker 3: going to rain again ever here. It's so dry. You're
Speaker 3: in North Wales, aren't you, Darius.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: It has been dry. We've had some rain, we've had
Speaker 2: some rain, and I will say that has rained during
Speaker 2: the course of this episode as well. So yeah, man,
Speaker 2: I am so jealous.
Speaker 3: It has literally been two months here, so we know
Speaker 3: we did have We had a two and a half
Speaker 3: minute downpour about about a month ago. Other than that,
Speaker 3: it is I mean, you about to say you should
Speaker 3: see my back garden. My my backgarden grass is plastic,
Speaker 3: so that's really kind of But the front garden it
Speaker 3: looks like the Serengetti. So yeah, bring them here because
Speaker 3: you know it's it's nice and right. So let's let's
Speaker 3: do that trade. We'll send We'll send that the Bormouth
Speaker 3: football team to New York because I'm sure they'd like
Speaker 3: they'd like that over there, and I'm not interested in
Speaker 3: them in the slightest. And then we can have we
Speaker 3: can have some MLB franchise here on the south coast
Speaker 3: of England. Yeah, who says no?
Speaker 2: Who says no? I think probably the Yankees.
Speaker 3: What the Mets have? The Mets, well, they got to lose.
Speaker 1: Steve Karen can just afford to ship a stadium across the.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, why not do it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was the kind of thing they used to do,
Speaker 1: like in the thirties, wasn't it just like buy mansions
Speaker 1: in there in Britain and then ship them over the Yeah.
Speaker 3: London Bridge famously is somewhere in America, is it not?
Speaker 2: Yeah I think so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And the Statue of Liberty came from France.
Speaker 2: Yep, so that was just normal. So Steve, Steve, bring
Speaker 2: it back.
Speaker 1: Clearly, spending your money on the roster roster isn't working,
Speaker 1: so why not do this? This makes absolute perfect sense.
Speaker 1: What we need in the South of England is a
Speaker 1: fifty thousand seat of baseball stadium that absolutely that absolutely works. Darius,
Speaker 1: did you have any interesting trades he would.
Speaker 3: Like to make?
Speaker 1: Well, I did think of a Mets related one, which
Speaker 1: it would be quite funny if Missus Met got traded
Speaker 1: to the Phillies, sort of deepening the Phillies Mets rivalry
Speaker 1: some sort of weird you know, love triangle. Mister Mets
Speaker 1: now jealous of the fanatic who objectively more attractive mascot
Speaker 1: than the terrifying mister Met. And you know Missus Mets
Speaker 1: had enough of Frankly, who wouldn't have the Mets season,
Speaker 1: and she's like, I want what's going on over there
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia?
Speaker 2: So off she goes.
Speaker 3: This is an interesting moral conundrum here, though, because the
Speaker 3: trade is completed by the team, not by missus Mets.
Speaker 3: So are we saying we're sort of selling her into prostitution? No?
Speaker 3: I think she demands the trade out of New York, right, Okay, good,
Speaker 3: that's certainly the morally better way with this should go down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Philly sends back. I think they don't want Alec
Speaker 1: Bohm or something. The other one, the other, the other
Speaker 1: phidy adjacent one was just for them to They've already
Speaker 1: committed to having another awful defensive team because they love
Speaker 1: doing that. Like, let's put Bryce Halfer back in the outfield.
Speaker 2: What could possibly go wrong?
Speaker 1: I think they should have leaned more heavily, Like why
Speaker 1: stop there? Why not just go in trade for the
Speaker 1: worst defensive players in baseball? See how much they've already
Speaker 1: got Schwarburg, but make him, you know, go and trade
Speaker 1: for somebody who has to play d h you know,
Speaker 1: so short stop has to play.
Speaker 2: I mean, is not great?
Speaker 3: When did that happen? But yes, I agreed, I thought
Speaker 3: it would be good if Red's catcher Tyler Stevenson, who
Speaker 3: talked about a lot today. We don't normally talk that
Speaker 3: much about the we we talked about. So Reds catcher
Speaker 3: Tyler Stevenson, who is almost he was, I don't know
Speaker 3: if he still is, but the most ABS windsors a
Speaker 3: fielder and infield South Stewart who has the most ABS
Speaker 3: winsors of a batter to be traded to the umpires
Speaker 3: in exchange for Bill Miller, who will then of course
Speaker 3: be reunited with Caleb Ferguson on the Reds who called
Speaker 3: him a expletive fat ass. So that's juicy all round.
Speaker 2: They're just looking for some clubhouse strife.
Speaker 3: Bill Miller in the club. But you know the other
Speaker 3: guy's clearly they're they're they're they're doing a better job
Speaker 3: because they keep winning the ABS. So they've got they've
Speaker 3: got the umpire eyes. Let's get them on the umpires
Speaker 3: and let's get Bill Miller there where you know we can.
Speaker 3: We can get that all sorted. Because you shouldn't be
Speaker 3: calling people that they should be they do in the
Speaker 3: All Star Game.
Speaker 1: Get get actual players to be the umpires. That should
Speaker 1: be the kind of thing, you know, because the All
Speaker 1: Star Dad, they should get dads to do it. That
Speaker 1: players dads to be the umpires or just any dads, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just that random dads. And then one of them, one
Speaker 1: of them is a little bit drunk and swearing from
Speaker 1: the sidelines. They just read out the seat number and
Speaker 1: it's like, come on down, you're behind home plate tonight.
Speaker 1: And then there's and then there's the miz throwing one
Speaker 1: hundred and five at this umpire. Yeah it's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there might be quite a few legal issues throughout with
Speaker 1: that one. Yes, absolutely, Okay, that works.
Speaker 3: Anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just wanted more nominative determinism, so prospect Boston
Speaker 1: Smith keeps getting traded this deadline, but not but not
Speaker 1: to Boston. Robbie Ray didn't go to the Rays. Very disappointing.
Speaker 1: Everybody called Brewer. Everybody called Brewer. There's more than one
Speaker 1: Brewer now. I think they should all be on the Brewers.
Speaker 1: Anybody with any team nominative determinism should you know that
Speaker 1: should be forced into a trade somewhere.
Speaker 2: I think that would be good.
Speaker 3: Feel really sorry for Eric diamond Back.
Speaker 2: I might have made him up.
Speaker 1: It's possible. I don't think we have any more any
Speaker 1: any Rockies now. Do you know people used to be
Speaker 1: called rocky but yeah, I mean rock rock Chilowski just
Speaker 1: got drafted in the draft.
Speaker 2: He could go.
Speaker 1: I don't know White Soxs would want from the Rockies
Speaker 1: in exchange for the number one oh four pick, but.
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 3: They needed they needed catching.
Speaker 2: How maybe they could have trained Hunted Goodman. There you
Speaker 2: go as a trader.
Speaker 3: And absolutely Plus they also keep talking about wanting a
Speaker 3: new stadium. Souse causes very nice stadium, and it's in
Speaker 3: a silly place. So maybe ship that thing up. Get
Speaker 3: Stevie back on the phone, ship that one down as well,
Speaker 3: we move stadiums all over the place. I think I
Speaker 3: had two more. First of all, I would like to
Speaker 3: trade Mark talking about food. I'm going to trade him
Speaker 3: for some long fingernails on a blackboard, because that would
Speaker 3: be at this point rather than explaining what a can
Speaker 3: of corn.
Speaker 2: Is again and again and again every single ad break.
Speaker 3: So I'm happy to do that one and last one.
Speaker 3: I had a couple of outcomes from this one. I
Speaker 3: was going to trade Rob Manfred to FIFA for Gianni
Speaker 3: Infantino and a brown and vope of cash allegedly to
Speaker 3: be named later. And it's got It's got got two
Speaker 3: possible outcomes. Number one outcome is we suddenly realize we've
Speaker 3: actually got it quite good and we'd rather have Rob
Speaker 3: Manfred back, and then everyone holds hands sings kumbay. We
Speaker 3: get a nice, nice deal for the next CBA, and
Speaker 3: we'll carry on watching a lot more baseball so that
Speaker 3: that would be a benefit, and he ends up going back.
Speaker 3: But if we do keep Infantino, there'd be an immediate
Speaker 3: expansion to forty eight teams, which means roy in Utah
Speaker 3: is starting to look very very attractive as a place
Speaker 3: to put a team. So who doesn't want to see that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you'd very quickly run through the obvious candidates segment,
Speaker 1: you that the Nashville's, the Montreals, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you'd suddenly be, well, god, what are we going to
Speaker 1: do now? And there would be Roy ready and waiting
Speaker 1: in Utah. You've already prepared the bid, you can just now.
Speaker 3: It's all ready to go.
Speaker 2: They're all ready to go.
Speaker 3: I don't know what number, but look back, we have
Speaker 3: a whole episode about roy Utah, So go back and
Speaker 3: find that one, because it wasn't actually about that. I
Speaker 3: didn't win our competition, but we did have a competition,
Speaker 3: and roy Utah wasn't it. I think Mexico City might
Speaker 3: have won that competition. You did the Axe Lottels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but there was a lot of detail about Roy,
Speaker 1: much more than the Mexico City bid.
Speaker 3: I've put far too much work into any more trades
Speaker 3: before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I'm still mulling over whether I'm actually glad that we
Speaker 1: don't have Infantino and we just get Manfred instead. Kind
Speaker 1: of seems preferable, which I feel. I feel a bit
Speaker 1: dirty saying that, but it's probably true. There's not many
Speaker 1: people you can say that about. There's not many people,
Speaker 1: but I think Infantino is one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good, Oh well, thank you for joining me, Rob. I
Speaker 1: think we've comprehensively broken down the trade deadline and the
Speaker 1: entirely fictional trade deadline as well on top of it.
Speaker 1: And if we didn't talk about your team, it's because
Speaker 1: we don't like them.
Speaker 2: That is true. Yes, we're not going to pretend anymore.
Speaker 2: That was why.
Speaker 1: You'll notice that, you know, we very quickly moved on
Speaker 1: from Jacob de Grom. Rob didn't want to talk about
Speaker 1: the Rangers at all. I don't like the Rangers, doesn't
Speaker 1: like the Rangers.
Speaker 3: Do we even say Blue Jays?
Speaker 2: Who knows.
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned Arjian Nimmela, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that we actually talked about the budgets. So other teams
Speaker 1: are available, Other teams are available. Yeah, that's just you know,
Speaker 1: we picked our favorites.
Speaker 2: What are you going to do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and with that, thank you everybody for listening. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to check out the website backflipsinders dot com. Gav
Speaker 1: is always doing stirling work, to the point that I
Speaker 1: often feel quite bad we haven't done a podcast because
Speaker 1: Gav is pumping out articles left, right and center and
Speaker 1: on all sorts of topics, you know, not just the
Speaker 1: trade deadline. There's stuff on the gb women's baseball team.
Speaker 1: There's stuff about the CBA on there in the past month. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of Gavin. The contributed team are doing
Speaker 1: a great job. Do go and check out the website
Speaker 1: and we will hopefully be back a lot sooner than
Speaker 1: we were for this particular podcast. As we approach the postseason,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there'll be lots to talk about down the
Speaker 1: stretch and well, look like it's some pretty exciting playoff races,
Speaker 1: So keep an eye out for further pods and we
Speaker 1: will catch you next time.