Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Backflips and Nerds, the baseball podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. We are back after a short hiatus.
Speaker 1: Apologies for the large gap between podcasts, but we've got
Speaker 1: a terrific four hander on deck for you today. Joining
Speaker 1: me Ben Carter, we have got Rob Navera. Rob. How
Speaker 1: are you hello?
Speaker 2: I'm superb. I feel like every time we do this
Speaker 2: we always end up apologizing for the big gap, so
Speaker 2: you know, like anticipate another big gap even though we'll
Speaker 2: say there won't be one. They probably will, but we're
Speaker 2: sorry anyway.
Speaker 1: Very true. Also joining us Russell Eason Russell, how are you?
Speaker 1: Editor's note here?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately Russell's Wi Fi died right after he gave his
Speaker 3: answer to this question, so he did not join us
Speaker 3: for this podcast. Rest assured is safe and well and
Speaker 3: we're back with us in due course. So yes, apologies
Speaker 3: for that. I'm back to the pod.
Speaker 1: Not hot and Whales though, is it, Darius?
Speaker 2: It's not.
Speaker 4: It's perfectly normal, balmy twenty one degrees here pretty much
Speaker 4: so doing doing fine over here.
Speaker 2: Moved to Wales and move to Wales.
Speaker 1: Keep cool. Well, we've got yeah, obviously a lot of
Speaker 1: baseball that we we could talk about because we've missed
Speaker 1: quite a bit of that over the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: but we thought we'd put a bit of a spin
Speaker 1: on it today. Rather than just talking through all the
Speaker 1: storylines that are weeks old. Now, we're going to go
Speaker 1: through some of the teams that are looking more competitive
Speaker 1: than the others and kind of rate there basically chances
Speaker 1: in the postseason or how confident we are about their
Speaker 1: chances in the postseason. There will also be a Pokemon
Speaker 1: element to it that we'll get to, so apologies in
Speaker 1: advance for that, but maybe we'll kick off with a
Speaker 1: couple of things that have happened a bit closer to
Speaker 1: home since we last podcast did. Let's start with with
Speaker 1: MLB Hackney. I don't I know we were pretty poorly
Speaker 1: attended at that one as a podcast. I was able
Speaker 1: to make it down on the Sunday afternoon and check
Speaker 1: it out, and it was really cool. I know it
Speaker 1: was a couple of weeks ago now as of time
Speaker 1: of recording, but from what I could see well attended
Speaker 1: in the afternoon. I heard from others that it was
Speaker 1: absolutely heaving on the Saturday night. I think Sean, our
Speaker 1: friend who edits the site obviously is a big Cups fan.
Speaker 1: He was down on Saturday and said it was yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely rammed. Loads of those people there, you know, drinking, eating, enjoying,
Speaker 1: watching some baseball, which is a great sign because it
Speaker 1: was a big venue, so I think to fill that
Speaker 1: out is credit to him or be. And it looks
Speaker 1: really cool the four different areas for the teams. There
Speaker 1: were branded bars, There was a bunch of different activities
Speaker 1: and activations taking place, bat and cages, diving into foam pits,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Lots of kids starre taking part,
Speaker 1: which is always encouraging to see. So yeah, I only
Speaker 1: hung around for a few hours. Saw Big Nick Swisher
Speaker 1: on stage. He was judging a DJ battle, which why not.
Speaker 1: I wish I could exploane better having watched it, but
Speaker 1: even being there in person was a bit confusing. But
Speaker 1: you know what Nick switch is like. He was just
Speaker 1: dancing around on stage for like ten minutes. Was music played.
Speaker 2: Presumably he was as enthusiastic about this as he is
Speaker 2: about everything else exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it still very much worked, but it was
Speaker 1: kind of like watching Nick Swisher lip sync to various
Speaker 1: rap songs from the nineties.
Speaker 2: So that was fast money for that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know if you obviously neither of you
Speaker 1: guys attended, But did you see any of the stuff
Speaker 1: about it on social did you feel like it landed
Speaker 1: in any meaningful way just from what you could see
Speaker 1: across yeah, Twitter, Instagram, anywhere else. What were your thoughts
Speaker 1: from a distance if you did catch any of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw a little bit of it on on socials.
Speaker 2: It looked like a fantastic day, and I honestly did
Speaker 2: sort of have that kind of fomo feeling when I
Speaker 2: was looking at it, which I think was a good
Speaker 2: thing because if you can't go, you want to think, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I wish I was there. It did make
Speaker 2: me think about last year and the wonderful time we
Speaker 2: all had at the Mets Phillies game in London, and
Speaker 2: the fact we obviously don't have that this year. So
Speaker 2: it was it was, Yeah, it was. It was kind
Speaker 2: of sad seat, you know, it was going on and
Speaker 2: I wasn't there. But that's fantastic because because baseball needs
Speaker 2: to grow and keep going regardless of whether or not
Speaker 2: I'm there personally to witness it. Were any of the
Speaker 2: four areas like busier or less busy, Like what was
Speaker 2: your what was your vibe on on the who was
Speaker 2: a who was a popular team?
Speaker 1: It was, you know, it's interesting. They definitely were busier
Speaker 1: and less busy areas, partly just because the way it
Speaker 1: was laid out, Like the Yankees had the batting cage
Speaker 1: in their area, and everyone wanted to have a go
Speaker 1: in the bat and cage. There's always lots of people
Speaker 1: there and there was a bar next to it, so
Speaker 1: they probably had prime position team wise. Plus you know,
Speaker 1: they're the Yankees, by just had good position. But they're
Speaker 1: like activation area I think was some kind of like
Speaker 1: photo booth activation that wasn't very popular, so there were
Speaker 1: less people queuing up for that. Giants had a diving
Speaker 1: catch thing, and then the Red Sox were a bit
Speaker 1: hidden away, but they had another sort of batting cage thing,
Speaker 1: so that also seemed pretty popular, but you couldn't really
Speaker 1: like sit and hang out around there. Of the jersey
Speaker 1: as I saw and actually and We'll be Europe did
Speaker 1: a video where they found all thirty jerseys over the weekend,
Speaker 1: which is impressive. Another Rockies fan, when I shake that
Speaker 1: man's hand, but the yea of the bits that I saw.
Speaker 1: The Giants were the best represented and had a team jerseys.
Speaker 1: Theres a whole host of them sitting in the Giants section.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Darius, you obviously weren't there in person, but
Speaker 1: your team was represented. Well what did you think of it?
Speaker 1: And I guess one thing I thought going into the
Speaker 1: weekend was maybe this is going to be our announcement
Speaker 1: for next year's game, Right, They're going to say at
Speaker 1: some point over the weekend, like next year we're bringing
Speaker 1: the Blue Jays and the Rays or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: But they didn't, So I'm now thinking should be concerned
Speaker 1: they haven't yet announced twenty twenty five or twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six is London game opponents? Or do you think this
Speaker 1: is all part of the master plan.
Speaker 4: We are starting to get towards the point where you'd
Speaker 4: think they'd want to be hyping it get people to
Speaker 4: buy tickets. As you say, it felt like, let's tell
Speaker 4: everybody here, Oh we're announcing tickets, you know, sign up
Speaker 4: for the pre sale, here's your link. Get that interest up.
Speaker 4: So that the that they haven't is yeah, mildly concerning.
Speaker 4: There's still time, obviously, but after what happened in Paris.
Speaker 4: I guess there's a little bit of concern. I don't
Speaker 4: think we've got the same issue there as we have
Speaker 4: in London, because obviously they have already established a venue
Speaker 4: and run three successful games there, so hopefully it's nothing
Speaker 4: more than that. Yeah, they just want to wait a
Speaker 4: little bit longer to confirm the details. But it did
Speaker 4: feel slightly like a missed opportunity to get this year
Speaker 4: sort of hype around it. Say, look at all these
Speaker 4: people here at this event, you know, obviously interested in baseball.
Speaker 4: I am part of the Giants' Facebook group, the UK Giants,
Speaker 4: and there was quite a lot of chattering that about
Speaker 4: who's going down this Sunday. Quite a lot of people
Speaker 4: organized I think in advance to pop along. So clearly
Speaker 4: that played out in terms of the attendance of the day,
Speaker 4: which is good to see.
Speaker 2: Exclaim actually speak of that. Can I sidebar for a
Speaker 2: moment about Facebook groups? I was I was in home base.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, sorry, not home base, that's no longer a thing.
Speaker 2: I was in the bit of the range now, which
Speaker 2: still has the home basy stuff looking for I was
Speaker 2: looking for some stuff to fertilize my chili plants, which
Speaker 2: are going very well, thanks for asking. And a bloke
Speaker 2: came up to me in a Maron and he wasn't
Speaker 2: wearing a Marinon's hat, is it? But he came up
Speaker 2: to me and he said, I happened to be wearing
Speaker 2: a Cubs hat, not this one, but a different Cubs hat.
Speaker 2: And he said, do you know what that hat is,
Speaker 2: kind of slightly aggressively, and I said, yes, actually, but
Speaker 2: I'm not a Cubs fan. I'm a Raised fan. And
Speaker 2: it turns out he was a bloke called Ray who
Speaker 2: has raised gear because he's called Ray. But he was
Speaker 2: a Mariner's fan and he's part of a great, big
Speaker 2: Mariner's fan group and there was a meetup. This is
Speaker 2: maybe two three weeks ago. There was a meetup in London.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure there is at least one of those
Speaker 2: Mariners people listening. So if you do, please say hello
Speaker 2: to Ray and shake his hand, and you know, good
Speaker 2: job for it. Sounds like there's a lot of Mariners gathering,
Speaker 2: gathering and chatting, so like the Facebook groups are out
Speaker 2: there and people should go and meet them. And that
Speaker 2: was the first, you know, very very kind of passive
Speaker 2: aggress I kind of you know, what your hat means.
Speaker 2: You know, like we all, we all kind of want
Speaker 2: to say to the Yankees fan, you see set and
Speaker 2: the bus stop, but like this booke did it. So
Speaker 2: fair play to Ray the Mariners fan, wherever you are,
Speaker 2: and I hope you had a lovely weekend, but please
Speaker 2: please continue.
Speaker 1: Good shout out to Ray. I think I did see
Speaker 1: about that Marina's meetup because Bernie, who I know, yeah,
Speaker 1: is the one Mariners fan I do know very well.
Speaker 1: I think was attending that one and had promoted it
Speaker 1: and stuff. So yeah, the Marinas are well represented. And
Speaker 1: actually I'll use your story for a sidebar of my
Speaker 1: own because you brought up Ray the Mariners fan. So
Speaker 1: I think, like I've probably told this story on the
Speaker 1: podcast before. But do you know the reason why the
Speaker 1: Rays on Twitter aren't at Raise they're at Raised Baseball.
Speaker 1: The reason because there's a man out there whose name
Speaker 1: is Ray S and he got that handle first, and
Speaker 1: despite being offered an extortionate amount of money by Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball to give up the handle, he's straight up refused.
Speaker 1: And I feel like they maybe had the same issue
Speaker 1: with like Twins dot Com. I just literally a couple
Speaker 1: of guys who are twins. Yeah, were like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to give up my domain. So again they had
Speaker 1: to be really creative and get around it. So a
Speaker 1: couple of funny stories just on how you know sometimes
Speaker 1: your team name can run into a man called Ray
Speaker 1: s who does not want to give up his Twitter.
Speaker 2: Handle, finding mister Ray following him quickly.
Speaker 1: On the topic of team meetups, I think we should
Speaker 1: use this as a chance to plug the fact that
Speaker 1: some of the Cubs fans are getting together this Saturday.
Speaker 1: I know that's being organized by Sean again, who is
Speaker 1: setting up a meeting at Passyunk Avenue this Saturday, August sixteenth,
Speaker 1: the one at Waterloo with Bleacher Jeff, who I'm told
Speaker 1: is a Cub super fan in attendance. I can't say
Speaker 1: I know him personally, but apparently very nice guy. So
Speaker 1: if there are any Cubs fans listening, especially, do get along.
Speaker 1: But even anyone who's not a Cubs fan. But it's
Speaker 1: free Saturday evening, I wants to watch baseball with fellow fans.
Speaker 1: I can vouch for them being a good bunch. So
Speaker 1: do you know, pop along, say hello, have a beer,
Speaker 1: watch a game and hang out. And obviously if anyone
Speaker 1: else is organizing meetups, then let's no obviously trying to
Speaker 1: get word out about any of these baseball hangs. Roby
Speaker 1: love that you've got something to tell us about Rayes.
Speaker 2: And I do have something to tell you about. Yes,
Speaker 2: a couple of things. First of all, the Tampa Bay
Speaker 2: Rays follow Rayes. Secondly, despite me not even knowing he existed,
Speaker 2: I am blocked by Rayes, so I can see nothing
Speaker 2: else about ray Yes, so that's uh, it's a very
Speaker 2: small group, but it's now ray S and Kevin Kiermaier
Speaker 2: who have blocked me.
Speaker 1: So do you think that's pride? Is that because of
Speaker 1: the years of you tweeting at Rays with disgust the
Speaker 1: morning after a loss, not realizing you were tweeting at
Speaker 1: Rayesh Could be?
Speaker 2: Or all those times I was telling Kevin to take
Speaker 2: his shirt off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, could be?
Speaker 2: Could be, Although Logan Morrison he just got jealous about it.
Speaker 2: So you know, yeah, let's not go there. You know,
Speaker 2: the court cases aren't going.
Speaker 1: I really didn't know how to segue this, but let's
Speaker 1: talk about something different. I was hoping that.
Speaker 2: Story about segues my stepmom. My step mom managed to
Speaker 2: fall off of the segue. She she was told it
Speaker 2: could not go over, yet she was still there and
Speaker 2: the thing went over, just like she want to listen
Speaker 2: to this. That's a good thing. But nobody but this
Speaker 2: woman could fall off a Segueil was perfectly still. But sorry,
Speaker 2: carry on, Garry on.
Speaker 1: No, I'm glad, I'm glad you're interjected with that story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Russells schroped off our court, hoping you'd be back on
Speaker 1: because the next point I had was around the GB
Speaker 1: under twenty three is winning the Euros. It's coming home.
Speaker 1: It's come home, which obviously is huge news. They beat
Speaker 1: the Czech Republic in the final, who I believe were
Speaker 1: the fairly heavy favorites going into the tournament, so a
Speaker 1: really big win for the program. I was hoping still
Speaker 1: be here because hands up, I didn't actually watch any
Speaker 1: of this tournament or finals, so I don't feel particularly
Speaker 1: qualified to speak to how are they played or which
Speaker 1: guys stood out, but I do know it was a
Speaker 1: comeback victory in the final and it obviously bodes particularly
Speaker 1: well for the future of British baseball. Did either of
Speaker 1: you guys manage to catch any of this game or
Speaker 1: any of the tournament? Can you speak any more to
Speaker 1: it than what I can by reading the recap afterwards.
Speaker 4: I saw, I saw some highlights. I didn't watch anything live,
Speaker 4: I say, but I mean fantastic news. Obviously, we've seen
Speaker 4: quite an uptick in interest in British baseball, and I
Speaker 4: think this is the kind of thing you'd expect to
Speaker 4: see from a bursioning program. I think, you know, being
Speaker 4: in Chechia against the favorites and managing to win that final,
Speaker 4: it's pretty impressive feat. So yeah, I think hopefully this
Speaker 4: boat's really well for future teams and to beat you know,
Speaker 4: the best in Europe on their own home field, and
Speaker 4: hopefully this poor ten small success for the main squad
Speaker 4: in the future.
Speaker 2: I thought I saw a little bit of it. I
Speaker 2: must admit I didn't really know that much about what
Speaker 2: I was watching. I don't know these guys. I want
Speaker 2: to know these guys, I mean, if these are these
Speaker 2: are the guys, who are you know? I don't know
Speaker 2: where they're from, I don't know how how bridge they are,
Speaker 2: don't know how much their imports. But you know it
Speaker 2: was I caught it whilst I was supposed to be
Speaker 2: working and had it on a secondary tab in the background,
Speaker 2: and yeah, absolutely it was fun. It was really fun stuff.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I want to know more about these guys,
Speaker 2: and I think part of the difficulty right now is
Speaker 2: finding out more about these guys. So so you know,
Speaker 2: give it to me, you put it in by veins,
Speaker 2: I'm ready for it. Let's let's find out these guys.
Speaker 2: Because you know, the if there is a criticism about
Speaker 2: British baseball and how well we've done in the World
Speaker 2: Baseball Classic and all that, it's you know, it's all
Speaker 2: importans how many these guys are are properly British. You know,
Speaker 2: what I'm hoping is that some of these guys are
Speaker 2: you know, they're they're they're born and bred and they're
Speaker 2: they're working towards it from from around here. So I
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know much about them, but I
Speaker 2: want to hear more. Like, whoever's got that information, just
Speaker 2: just get it to us, get it to us, We'll
Speaker 2: get it on the website. We want to know it. Please. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Second, did I dare say you know some of these
Speaker 1: guys If not in time the WBC next year, but
Speaker 1: certainly at some point we'll be graduating to the senior
Speaker 1: level and representing GB obviously on the full national stage,
Speaker 1: but I think, yeah, to win a tournament at this
Speaker 1: caliber shows tremendous progress, so it congrats to everyone involved,
Speaker 1: and yeah, good luck for future such tournaments. Let's move
Speaker 1: on then to the game's state side, and yeah, we
Speaker 1: obviously wanted to talk baseball. Lots of things going on.
Speaker 1: I think, as mentioned at the top, as a kind
Speaker 1: of vehicle for our conversation, we're going to try and
Speaker 1: look at each of the playoff contenders, postseason contenders and
Speaker 1: kind of rate our level of confidence in them well,
Speaker 1: I suggested on a scale of one to ten or
Speaker 1: twenty to eighty. But right before we recorded, Rob came
Speaker 1: out with a shocking take that we told him to
Speaker 1: say for the podcast. Rob, you want us to avoid
Speaker 1: twenty eighty?
Speaker 2: Why? I just hate twenty eighty. It's stupid, It's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 2: So I know it's something to do with standard deviations,
Speaker 2: which let's face it, no one in real life has
Speaker 2: anything to do with. So we don't really know what
Speaker 2: twenty eighty is. So okay, fine, if it's going to
Speaker 2: go from twenty eighty, let's say, oh, this guy's this
Speaker 2: guy's a thirty two or thirty seven. No, no, no, no no,
Speaker 2: we can only do twenty forty, fifty, sixty, seventy and eighteen,
Speaker 2: which is stupid. So fine, well let's do one to
Speaker 2: one hundred, but again we don't do fifty three, so
Speaker 2: why have they got zeros on the end? Just do
Speaker 2: one to ten. So it's just a stupid, stupid scoring.
Speaker 2: The fact that you have to I know something about
Speaker 2: it before you can understand what's going on is just
Speaker 2: just rubbish. It should be a case of a to F,
Speaker 2: one to tip whatever. But like, twenty to eighty is
Speaker 2: the stupid brainchild of someone who thought they were cleverer
Speaker 2: than everyone else in the room, and it just come
Speaker 2: across as a bit of a twat. So no to
Speaker 2: twenty eighty. I am the one to ten scale please,
Speaker 2: or an A to f, whichever everybody else wants, But
Speaker 2: I am resisting eighty twenty.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna unfairly throw it to you here, Darius. You
Speaker 1: did not invent the system by any means, But do
Speaker 1: you want to provide some kind of rebuttal on behalf
Speaker 1: of the baseball scouting community for why twenty to eighty
Speaker 1: is at least in some circumstances, a good tool with
Speaker 1: which to measure things.
Speaker 4: Well, I suppose you know, it's a construct like anything.
Speaker 4: We decided that zero was the lowest, one hundred was
Speaker 4: the highest for a lot of scales because we just
Speaker 4: made it up right.
Speaker 2: Well, no, because zero means nothing that makes sense. Twenty
Speaker 2: doesn't mean nothing, it doesn't, right. I think this is
Speaker 2: just exposing the twenty nothing making sense of anything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 4: I think it is a standard deviation thing. I don't
Speaker 4: know what the original I think Branch, Richard branch Ricky
Speaker 4: is supposed to have created it, but I'm not sure
Speaker 4: the story of why Branch said. I don't want zero
Speaker 4: to be bad. I want twenty.
Speaker 2: It is to do genuinely to do with standard deviations,
Speaker 2: and that if you if you go to eighty, you're
Speaker 2: at ninety nine point seven something percent, So the extra
Speaker 2: zero point three percent really doesn't matter. But nobody works
Speaker 2: in standard deviations. That's rubbit. No one ever works, clearly,
Speaker 2: branch Ricky did, well, branch Ricky cant my Branch, Well, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't disagree with rob having having to learn like
Speaker 4: what this means, you know, when you could just use
Speaker 4: something that everybody understands in the first place. Does feel
Speaker 4: a little bit like gatekeepery. You know, this is our thing.
Speaker 4: We need to have our own scale for this, which
Speaker 4: is just like the same as a regular scale. We
Speaker 4: cut the ends off. It's a slightly way to think
Speaker 4: about things, but it's also not really very complicated to learn.
Speaker 4: Fifty is still in the middle, and you know twenty
Speaker 4: is bad and eighty is great.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Bi, can we do fifteen to eighty seven please?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I want all ROBS ratings between fifteen and
Speaker 4: eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Fifteen to eighty seven scale. There we go, decided.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we got to this to date before we
Speaker 1: even started talking about any of the actual teams, and.
Speaker 2: Also upsets some mathematicians out there. Probably I was.
Speaker 1: Going to say, there definitely are some people who do
Speaker 1: work in standard deviations, but.
Speaker 2: Because I'm scared of the mathematicians, come at me. Come on, yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, next London series mathematicians, come find ROB.
Speaker 1: I'm generally on team ROB for this, but I do
Speaker 1: think a very cool, you know, baseball thing to say
Speaker 1: is grade eighty about anything, just because it's you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred, to be cooler sure, maybe I.
Speaker 4: Think eighty grade sounds better than one hundred grade. I
Speaker 4: don't know who maybe rolls off the tongue bit easier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, anyway, whatever, I think it's seven to rate
Speaker 1: with what level our confidence stands with regards to these
Speaker 1: teams that are in postseason contention. So, you know, do
Speaker 1: we believe in those teams that are currently looking good
Speaker 1: to make it to the playoffs? Do you think they're pretenders?
Speaker 1: Do we think they're built for the postseason? Are they
Speaker 1: going to fold at the first sign of a big,
Speaker 1: scary crowd and the bright lights of October. The way
Speaker 1: I've kind of cut this off is if you're more
Speaker 1: than three games out of a world card spot, you
Speaker 1: will not make it into our discussion, just because I
Speaker 1: don't want to sit here and talk about twenty five teams.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, if you're more than three games
Speaker 1: out at this point, you're probably not making it. But again,
Speaker 1: I might have to buy my mind.
Speaker 2: I assume it's because you want to annoy the Rangers fans. Again,
Speaker 2: you're pickings of Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1: That's the way you want to read into it. So sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll go through each team talk a bit
Speaker 1: about how we feel about them, what level of confidence
Speaker 1: we give them, and then we sparked a little chat
Speaker 1: in our WhatsApp group about Pokemon most because, like many
Speaker 1: others out there, I'm sure I saw the video of
Speaker 1: Jacob Mizerowski Bros. Rookie, opening a pack of Pokemon cards
Speaker 1: and he packed a Charizard, which I'll admit I didn't
Speaker 1: know much about other than charizards are called Pokemon. Good,
Speaker 1: say Darius. It turns out that charitards an imenseally rare
Speaker 1: Pokemon card. I think it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,
Speaker 1: so not that Jacob Michowski really needs it, but that
Speaker 1: video went viral for you know, Pokemon reasons. Turns out
Speaker 1: there's a devisive subject to know WhatsApp greet Brob's gonna
Speaker 1: probably give us an explanation of why when we ask
Speaker 1: him for his Pokemon choice of some of these teams,
Speaker 1: but we thought we'd have some fun with it and
Speaker 1: kind of pick a Pokemon that represents each of these teams,
Speaker 1: at least the way we feel about them, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it's going to go that well, but
Speaker 1: we'll try. That's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll just clarify him on the list of the
Speaker 2: ten most expensive Charizard Pokemon cards on cards collector dot
Speaker 2: co do at uk on a nineteen ninety nine first
Speaker 2: edition holographic base set Charizard PSA, which I believe is
Speaker 2: the highest quality grade of card you can get, recently
Speaker 2: sold for four hundred and twenty thousand dollars owned. But
Speaker 2: if you are at home and you've got some old
Speaker 2: Pokemon cards kicking around, and some of them are looking
Speaker 2: pretty good condition and they've got charis are on them,
Speaker 2: then get yourself down to your nearest card auction house
Speaker 2: now and make us up some money.
Speaker 1: I don't know. My views on cards generally is pretty
Speaker 1: similar to Robsy on the twenty eighty scale. I won't
Speaker 1: go into it now, but like, who is paying that
Speaker 1: for a Charazar card? Anyway, Let's go on with a
Speaker 1: team chat. Let's start. I guess so typically in the
Speaker 1: al East Robin not talking about your raise, it didn't
Speaker 1: make the cut. I guess. We can have a podcast
Speaker 1: on the sad disappointing teams another time, but let's start
Speaker 1: with the jas instead, who have been pretty surprising to me,
Speaker 1: at least in terms of the run of form. They've
Speaker 1: been on lately. How do you see them? What is
Speaker 1: your confidence level? And do you have a Pokemon for
Speaker 1: the Jason?
Speaker 2: Are you addressing me?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Sorry, that's for you. Very good.
Speaker 2: The Jays have been fantastic. There is no doubt about
Speaker 2: the Jays being fantastic. I don't know how much I
Speaker 2: believe it, which is stupid because I think at the
Speaker 2: moment they're what, they're tied second best record in the
Speaker 2: Major's right now. It's really come out of nowhere. I
Speaker 2: don't think you would speak to many people preseason this
Speaker 2: year and say do you think the Blue Jays are
Speaker 2: going to be the best team in the American League?
Speaker 2: They go, yeah, sure, yeah, absolutely. I mean you would
Speaker 2: probably put three or maybe four of the teams in
Speaker 2: that division ahead of the Blue Jays. I think there
Speaker 2: was an element of calling for them to be the bottom,
Speaker 2: if not second bottom, in that division, and here they
Speaker 2: are absolutely demolishing it. I don't know how much that's
Speaker 2: to do with a bit of sequencing. Luck. If we
Speaker 2: look at run differential, which I personally sort of tend
Speaker 2: to think is a decent arometer of where a team
Speaker 2: should be, they are they are well behind that they're
Speaker 2: sort of more level with the Rays, who are languishing
Speaker 2: deservedly well down in fourth place. So I don't have
Speaker 2: an awful lot of faith in the in the Blue Jays.
Speaker 2: It's all coming together, you know, But no, really, I
Speaker 2: think yet. They're obviously going to make the postseason at
Speaker 2: this point, but will they survive long in that? I
Speaker 2: just I just can't see where that's coming from. So uh,
Speaker 2: I've put them down as washing machine tissue man, being
Speaker 2: being the Pokemon that I have against them, as their
Speaker 2: pocket monsters, I assume they are all things that come
Speaker 2: out your pocket, so a tissue that's been and they're
Speaker 2: kind of just sort of disintegrate a little bit once
Speaker 2: once they get into the real, real hard, hard washing
Speaker 2: bit of the season. Yeah, washing washing, washing machine tissue man.
Speaker 4: I'm glad I don't have to sit here and work
Speaker 4: out which of the Pokemon you meant by washing machine
Speaker 4: tissue man.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not. I'm gonna you know what I'm gonna whilst
Speaker 2: you're talking, I'm going to look up pictures of Pokemon
Speaker 2: and see if I can work out which, well I
Speaker 2: think looks most like washing machine tissue man. By the way,
Speaker 2: pocket Monster sounds like a horrendous euphebism. But carry on, Darius,
Speaker 2: are you a blue lever?
Speaker 1: Do you think that the jayser for real?
Speaker 4: Not like winning the al eas three or no. The
Speaker 4: pitching is kind of bad, Like it's not even above average.
Speaker 4: I think they're going to get rocked in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you, yes, I love Max Scherzer,
Speaker 4: but you know it's not been peak Max. As he's
Speaker 4: gutting it out there, I guess you know you believe
Speaker 4: in the guts on the mound, but he's.
Speaker 1: Not what he was.
Speaker 4: I just think there's a lot of holes in that
Speaker 4: pitching stuff and they might well get pretty exposed in
Speaker 4: a playoff series. So the level of confidence is it's
Speaker 4: not high that they're going to do well in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: What are we doing here? I guess I'll say thirty eight.
Speaker 2: That's we didn't do a number. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you didn't.
Speaker 2: You didn't do a number. But I'm doing a number.
Speaker 2: It's a good number. I'm not far off you with
Speaker 2: the with the number. You think that's a good number.
Speaker 2: I think it's a good number.
Speaker 4: I think the pokemon that looks most like washing machine
Speaker 4: tissue man of the original one hundred and fifty one,
Speaker 4: which is all we're recognized. It's got the pictures in
Speaker 4: front of me. Now it's probably prime ape, I would say.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you gave, if you gave, if you
Speaker 2: gave a washing machine tissue like little arms, stumpy arms
Speaker 2: and legs, it would look a bit like crime map. Okay,
Speaker 2: depending on the size of the tissue. I was thinking
Speaker 2: the one that looks like a butterfly, but butter butter free?
Speaker 2: Is that any good? No? Not really? Okay, right, well,
Speaker 2: one of those, then there you go, butter free washing
Speaker 2: machine tissue man the choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I might believe in them a little
Speaker 1: bit more than you guys, just because I think the
Speaker 1: lineup is really really good. Forty maybe one of the
Speaker 1: best is in the American League. Ernie Clement breakout is yeah,
Speaker 1: somewhat shocking, and then all the guys that needed to
Speaker 1: be good have been good. But yeah, I do think
Speaker 1: the rotation is a concern and that does tend to
Speaker 1: matter in the playoffs. So maybe I've bumped them up
Speaker 1: to did you say forty nine? I'll give them like
Speaker 1: fifty two, middle of the pack. On what are we
Speaker 1: calling your scale, Robie. You can have a think about
Speaker 1: what we're calling it as we talk about the next team.
Speaker 1: Who are the Boston Red Sox?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Sorry the Pokemon for the Jay's I had pidgiot in that.
Speaker 1: You know, when you first greet them as a little piggy,
Speaker 1: you don't think much of them, But actually, as the
Speaker 1: season's gone on and they have evolved, I'm giving them
Speaker 1: a lot more respect as a genuine threat. Let's talk
Speaker 1: Red Sox, Darius. Why don't you start us off with
Speaker 1: your views on the Red Sox and how much you
Speaker 1: believe in them, maybe getting it all together in time
Speaker 1: for October run.
Speaker 4: I feel like on sort of any given week, you
Speaker 4: could have thought that the Red Sox were terrible or
Speaker 4: amazing this season and what they arrive at, but you know,
Speaker 4: in those weeks in October is going to determine how
Speaker 4: they go. There's obviously some very talented players on this team.
Speaker 4: Alex Brigman loves to hit in Boston. We know remend
Speaker 4: Anthony looks like he's going to be a pretty great player.
Speaker 4: Bully o Bray, You're having an excellent season and maybe
Speaker 4: they get a bit more out of you know, Christian
Speaker 4: Campbell if he comes back from the Miners. Sadana Rafaela's
Speaker 4: taking a level up. So you know, I like quite
Speaker 4: a few of the pieces in the lineup. The pitching
Speaker 4: is like, I do not know, Like Walker Buler has
Speaker 4: been a mess for most of this season, but he
Speaker 4: might just be Walker e. Fan Buehler in the playoffs
Speaker 4: because that's what he does. He was terrible last season
Speaker 4: and then he was great in the playoffs. Garrett Crochet
Speaker 4: is a stud again. Giolito like he looks great and
Speaker 4: then the next inning he looks like he might not
Speaker 4: get anybody out.
Speaker 2: I just don't know.
Speaker 4: With the Red Sox, I think they could be immediately
Speaker 4: swept or go all the way. So I guess I'm
Speaker 4: looking for the most variants possible here. I don't know
Speaker 4: what the most random Pokemon is that could just give
Speaker 4: you anything. I'm trying to think of what is what
Speaker 4: is like chaos personified in a Pokemon.
Speaker 1: I wrote in my notes Gangar, but I can't remember why,
Speaker 1: but I feel like he's quite a chaotic Pokemon.
Speaker 4: Gengga is quite a chaotic Pokemon. I could I could
Speaker 4: believe that. Yeah, so maybe it's Gangar. I feel like
Speaker 4: number on your scale because there's a there's all these
Speaker 4: numbered Pokemon. I can tell you which one it comes
Speaker 4: out there. You go, oh, you're just going to give
Speaker 4: it whatever number I tell you. Yeah, you give me
Speaker 4: the number, I'll tell you which, which which pokemon Pokemon is.
Speaker 4: I feel like I believe in them a bit more
Speaker 4: than the Blue Jays, but maybe not a super amount.
Speaker 4: So like forty seven.
Speaker 2: Forty seven is it looks like a sort of a
Speaker 2: crab parasect. Yeah, that's some sort of insect with like
Speaker 2: a mushroom on its back. Rope. Okay, I saw crab.
Speaker 2: But fine, if that's what that is, that's that's that's
Speaker 2: all good. That's there is a crab. There are two crabs,
Speaker 2: but there's that's different papal. One of them is called krabb.
Speaker 2: I think that's creative, innovative, fantastic. Sorry, right, yes, keep
Speaker 2: it moving, absolutely, I do. Actually, I'm I'm a little
Speaker 2: bit more. I'm a bit more on the Red Sox.
Speaker 2: I think again, one differential they've they've they are they're
Speaker 2: hitting it hard, you know, and it's it's a slow
Speaker 2: start that's kind of disguised where they where they've been
Speaker 2: at and they've got a lot of guys who are
Speaker 2: going to be good in the day rotation wise, you know,
Speaker 2: like Brian Beao is terrible or brilliant, Lucas Giulioto is
Speaker 2: still still got that, you know, Dustin May, who knows
Speaker 2: at this point, but then Garrett Crochet and you only
Speaker 2: need three of these guys to be any any damn
Speaker 2: good in the in the postseason, and I just feel
Speaker 2: like they sort of they sort of got it, you know,
Speaker 2: like I don't know why Rob Refsnyder is still on
Speaker 2: the bench, How that man is still drawing awage. I
Speaker 2: don't know, Lovely Chap by all intents and purposes, but
Speaker 2: like he's been kicking around bang average for Donkeys years.
Speaker 2: Abraham Torro is still playing on that team. Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know how it's working, but it's working. But then,
Speaker 2: you know, you look at the rest is solid, Like
Speaker 2: we're lacking stars a little bit, absolutely, But then over
Speaker 2: the last few years is that you know, stars versus
Speaker 2: stars and scrubs teams and the teams that were just
Speaker 2: genuinely they got a bit going on for them. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2: those are the teams and I think I think they've
Speaker 2: got a bit about them, So I'm I'm going to
Speaker 2: give them more more of a sixty three. I'm I'm
Speaker 2: kind of about them. I'm a sixty three. I quite like,
Speaker 2: quite like the Red Sox. I think they've got a
Speaker 2: really good chance of taking that pen. I don't think
Speaker 2: they're the favorites, but I don't think they're a million
Speaker 2: miles off. Yeah, I don't think you can count the
Speaker 2: Red Sox out. So I've got them as the lint beast.
Speaker 2: That is the pokemon I've got, you know, the lint
Speaker 2: beast to still come out of your pocket.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm more skeptical than you, partly just
Speaker 1: the gut feeling of like how this team's played all season.
Speaker 1: I just don't see them being able to keep it
Speaker 1: all together for a whole month in October. Like maybe
Speaker 1: they'll sweep the first series, but then it will fall
Speaker 1: apart from them in the next one. They've just been that.
Speaker 1: I've been like waiting for it all to click and
Speaker 1: it hasn't happened. Really. Yeah, and yet they're still, you know,
Speaker 1: in contention, and Crochet is an ace, a legit ace,
Speaker 1: and that always helps in October when you can throw
Speaker 1: him out twice in A series. They've got a good
Speaker 1: enough lineup that, yeah, maybe if Christian Campbell can can
Speaker 1: bash the door down, Triple A gets better with him
Speaker 1: coming back next month. But yeah, I just don't get
Speaker 1: They just don't give me the feeling of a championship
Speaker 1: caliber team right now. Would happily be proven wrong. But
Speaker 1: I put the more around the fifty mark in terms
Speaker 1: of my level of confidence or the middle of the
Speaker 1: pack that the upside is there, but diggle it exactly.
Speaker 1: But but I don't. Yeah, I don't have strong belief
Speaker 1: in them turning into a into a wagon.
Speaker 2: Let's we should have made the scale to be one
Speaker 2: to one hundred and fifty one for this to work.
Speaker 2: That would have made way more sense. But but no,
Speaker 2: this is the the semi pocket monster scale of seven.
Speaker 2: You can't go full pocket Monster scale on the first go.
Speaker 2: You have to start with the semi semi pocket monster.
Speaker 1: Sorry onto the Yankees? Uh they yeah?
Speaker 2: Well, hang, I thought we were we were three three
Speaker 2: games back. The Yankees further.
Speaker 1: Out, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: Are they wild? Sorry they're in the divisions. Rob's eliminated
Speaker 2: them already.
Speaker 1: Wow, we know level stands.
Speaker 2: I'm giving them the the full bulbousur carry out.
Speaker 1: Ball saw it is for the Yankees. I yeah, they
Speaker 1: are another strange team, Like I don't know how they've
Speaker 1: managed to find themselves in third place in division considering
Speaker 1: how good they looked in the first month or two.
Speaker 1: But it all just doesn't really feel right for them
Speaker 1: this year, does it. Obviously Judges still being incredible. They've
Speaker 1: even managed to somewhat keep stanting healthy. They're getting bits
Speaker 1: from the rest of the lineup, but not really enough.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, the rotation just hasn't really stood up
Speaker 1: and found itself, you know, any kind of credibility has it?
Speaker 1: I think obviously they massively miss Garrett Cole, but I
Speaker 1: think even behind him, no one really has managed to
Speaker 1: make that step up to become a reliable every fifth
Speaker 1: day guy, which, yeah, you need multiple of those really
Speaker 1: if you're going to compete in the playoffs. And obviously
Speaker 1: the bullpen Devan Williams, I don't even know, Yeah, where
Speaker 1: you even pitch him at this point. I think he's blown.
Speaker 1: Like the last five saved chances has been given and
Speaker 1: that doesn't tend to go down well in the Bronx.
Speaker 1: So it all just feels a little bit dysfunctional. Right now,
Speaker 1: there's enough talent, I think on this team for them
Speaker 1: to you know, get into the postseason again and get
Speaker 1: hot and maybe make it back to the World Series.
Speaker 1: You know, they were very good last October, but right
Speaker 1: now I don't see it. My confidence would be sub
Speaker 1: fifty probably on Rob scale. Let's say forty six for
Speaker 1: fear numbers.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's a solid Paris Rob.
Speaker 1: What do you think of the Yankees?
Speaker 2: The Yankees? I think there's something wrong in the psyche.
Speaker 2: There's no way the team that is playing this well
Speaker 2: should just click and change. Now. There's happened to a
Speaker 2: couple of teams, so you know, perhaps there's there's some
Speaker 2: ball for Shenanigan's going on or I don't know what
Speaker 2: it is, but it's clipped from such such dominance, like
Speaker 2: they were the beast Yankees that we thought they were
Speaker 2: supposed to be and they've fallen apart. We're talking about
Speaker 2: a team that is still bound for the playoffs at
Speaker 2: this point, but I think a lot of people are
Speaker 2: starting to think like it's probably not going to be
Speaker 2: the Yankees in the playoffs. Like they are looking dreadful
Speaker 2: at the moment. I mean, we've we whenever the Yankees
Speaker 2: start going bad for some reason, the defense just falls
Speaker 2: off a cliff. And I don't know if that's that's
Speaker 2: confident stuff, it's it's the way they're they're doing the
Speaker 2: mental conditioning there, the pressure from the stands. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but it feels like when it gets on them, it
Speaker 2: gets on them. And I don't want to sound too
Speaker 2: much like you know, call in radio from you know,
Speaker 2: these guys just aren't trying hard enough. But my god,
Speaker 2: like something has happened here, and it is not to
Speaker 2: do with the way these guys are skilled, because they
Speaker 2: were doing it just fine for the first part of
Speaker 2: the season. Now it's just fallen off a cliff and
Speaker 2: and a team like the Yankees, with the start they
Speaker 2: had to think they are even considering dropping out of
Speaker 2: the playoff races is quite insane. You know, you got
Speaker 2: guys like Devin Williams you mentioned who who you know.
Speaker 2: I would would have been burning to get a play
Speaker 2: like Devin Williams on my teeth, and now he has
Speaker 2: been dross recently, absolute dross. And I think it just
Speaker 2: it was epitomized by that capitulation against the Marlins just
Speaker 2: after the deadline when they bolstered it all. They've got
Speaker 2: the new guys in and it all just went to hell,
Speaker 2: you know, and the defense has been a disaster. So Yankees,
Speaker 2: it's hard to say. As a team. I think they're
Speaker 2: an awful lot better than where they are. Something needs
Speaker 2: to get them at their funk being. I've never really
Speaker 2: thought about a manager firing actually having it much impact before,
Speaker 2: but surely this is the sort of thing, like these
Speaker 2: guys need to think they could win again and you know,
Speaker 2: get back to basics, fundamentals, blah blah blah, all of that.
Speaker 2: They can do it, but they're not. So what's the
Speaker 2: bit that's missing here? So Yankees right now? Twenty three's
Speaker 2: on the scale they are. They are bottom feeders, and
Speaker 2: that's not based on talent. That's based on something stinking
Speaker 2: in that clubhouse, and that will be the crumpled Rosito.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Pokeymard, You're mute, Ben.
Speaker 1: That was a smart move from me. Sorry. I was
Speaker 1: really saying something quite for both there and insightful, but
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it was now. It does feel
Speaker 1: a little bit like Aaron Boone is managing for his
Speaker 1: job here, doesn't it. I think Yankees fans have been
Speaker 1: calling for his job pretty much every week for I
Speaker 1: don't know, six years, ever since he started the role,
Speaker 1: but he certainly feels like he's under the firing line.
Speaker 1: And maybe Cashman too again unthinkable a few years ago
Speaker 1: when Yankee fans loved him. But there may be are
Speaker 1: questions around the way this Rosser is constructed at this
Speaker 1: point and what they've done to build this team out
Speaker 1: given how good they were last year. Darius said anything
Speaker 1: to add to what Rob said, are you more optimistic
Speaker 1: about the Yankees?
Speaker 2: And here is no, not really.
Speaker 4: The vibes are rancid Champ because they've got a lot
Speaker 4: of power and a lot of arms, but none of
Speaker 4: it's really working that well. And you can tell that
Speaker 4: guy wouldn't be any good in the field. So I
Speaker 4: think my confidence is probably pretty low in the Yankees
Speaker 4: right now. I'm gonna say thirty four. Thirty four is
Speaker 4: a nidger king the King.
Speaker 1: I think it works sure.
Speaker 2: Also not that mobile.
Speaker 3: Just like.
Speaker 1: Stanton though, yeah, Stanton is at least mashing. Stanton is mashing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the lineup actually, I mean it hasn't been
Speaker 1: that bad. Grisham's been great, they just traded for Ryan McMahon,
Speaker 1: Rocky's legend who I don't think he's done much since
Speaker 1: he got to the Yankees. But the lineup's not bad.
Speaker 1: Anthony Volpi, Yeah, he's got to at a BP with
Speaker 1: like twenty home runs and twenty steels and terrible defense.
Speaker 2: But it can't catch the thing. Yeah, I think New
Speaker 2: York is not the right place for Anthony valpy to be.
Speaker 2: Let's say that to go to Detroit and be a
Speaker 2: four wind player Detroit was exactly what I was thinking.
Speaker 4: Anyway, Scott Harris, I'm sure would say, please give me
Speaker 4: Anthony Valpey for speaking.
Speaker 1: Of the Troy Let's let's transition to the central and
Speaker 1: talk about the Tigers. I'll let you gosk this one, Darrius,
Speaker 1: that they, in my mind, seem like one of the
Speaker 1: teams we can be more confident about. Would you agree
Speaker 1: with that assessment.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's if you ask me, like a month ago, I
Speaker 4: think I would have been a lot more confident. The
Speaker 4: fact that they're letting the Guardians creep back into a
Speaker 4: race that should never have been a race is a
Speaker 4: little bit nerve wracking to me. I feel like maybe
Speaker 4: They're not dissimilar from kind of like the Red Sox
Speaker 4: in that obviously School is a stud in the rotation,
Speaker 4: but then I'm really not that sure about the rest
Speaker 4: of the pitching stuff, and they're kind of mid overall.
Speaker 2: Unlike the Red Sox.
Speaker 4: You know that they've had some good offensive performances from
Speaker 4: guys you wouldn't necessarily expect to be great, but also
Speaker 4: there's been some pretty concerning signs. I think Riley Green's
Speaker 4: strikeout rate is like nearly forty over the last month. Yes,
Speaker 4: you know, have bias had that what we said, bird
Speaker 4: in his line and starting to make a lot more
Speaker 4: have you buy it's like now, and there's not a
Speaker 4: lot of depth there. You know, it's not a lineup
Speaker 4: that you're like, here's all the studs here. I think
Speaker 4: they could look pretty weak when they get into the playoffs.
Speaker 4: So I also don't know that I have a lot
Speaker 4: of confidence in the Tigers. I think maybe a bit
Speaker 4: more than the Yankees, just because I don't feel like
Speaker 4: they're in quite the same sort of vibes downward spiral
Speaker 4: that the Yankees are at the moment, and they're probably
Speaker 4: not going to get their fans given them quite as
Speaker 4: hard as time as the seven.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm more confident in the Red Sox. Actually,
Speaker 2: so maybe like a forty one, forty one is forty
Speaker 2: one is a zoo bat. It's got bat in it.
Speaker 2: That can't be bad. That's going to be a good
Speaker 2: that's true.
Speaker 1: Peaceful purposes, useful. How do you see the Tigers?
Speaker 2: Is the one that looks Is there a pokemon that looks.
Speaker 1: Like a tiger?
Speaker 2: I mean there's like a couple of cats growls, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: they look like tigers to me in the pictures I'm
Speaker 2: looking at. Anyway, we'll take it the Tigers. I think
Speaker 2: they they've They've done a lot of not having crap
Speaker 2: on their team. I think they've done They've had some
Speaker 2: guys do a lot better than we thought they would.
Speaker 2: I think if you look at their stats now as
Speaker 2: an overall, everything looks great. I think the problem is
Speaker 2: if you look at their splits over the last a
Speaker 2: little while, it's clearly on a downward trend. But we
Speaker 2: know these trends don't tend to last. You know, every
Speaker 2: team seems to be having a great run and then
Speaker 2: a dip. If this is their dip and they come
Speaker 2: back then, I have no no reason to doubt the
Speaker 2: Tigers over any other team. They are beating up on
Speaker 2: a crap division again. And no matter how much we say, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe the Royals are good this year, all the Twins
Speaker 2: aren't that bad after they sell off, or you know,
Speaker 2: the sun rises of sunsets of Cleveland Indians are somehow
Speaker 2: still in it being rubbish. But yeah, the Tigers. The
Speaker 2: Tigers have had their their their division luck. But you
Speaker 2: know what they're They're also good. They've also got the
Speaker 2: run differential. They're also right up there with the Blue
Speaker 2: Jays at the top of the American League. So I see,
Speaker 2: I see no reason to doubt them other. You know,
Speaker 2: once they get out of the dog days of summer.
Speaker 2: So if it gets a bit cools off again, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe that's the kind of temperature these guys working better.
Speaker 2: So once it gets slightly cooler in October, I could
Speaker 2: see them going a little bit further. So so give
Speaker 2: me a give me a solid sixty two on the
Speaker 2: on the Tigers, which would be overly optimistic, condom man
Speaker 2: or sixty two things in my pocket A Poli Wrath,
Speaker 2: Poli Wrath, Polyrath, Polyrath, poly wrath. Okay, yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2: He's a part is a polyrath sounds.
Speaker 1: Like something you might find in your pocket. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was skeptical the Tiers coming into the season, then very
Speaker 1: quickly had to change my mind when they were the
Speaker 1: best team in baseball for the first half, And now
Speaker 1: feel like maybe I was right about some of the
Speaker 1: concerns about the lineup at the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: because a lot of them seem to have turned back
Speaker 1: into pumpkins, the guys who had those great first halves.
Speaker 1: But overall, I do still think I believe in Like
Speaker 1: look having Scooborne the mound, similar argument to Crochet right
Speaker 1: when you can throw him out there twice in a series,
Speaker 1: I like your chances. He is just one of those
Speaker 1: absolute dogs who is going to win you a game
Speaker 1: on his own if required. And I like having that.
Speaker 1: And I think there's enough pop in the lineup, and
Speaker 1: I like the bullpen enough that if they can win
Speaker 1: enough games to kind of get themselves a reasonably high seed,
Speaker 1: I feel good about them. But if they continue to
Speaker 1: fall apart and that get to the Guardian's narrows and
Speaker 1: they limp into the playoffs, it feels like it could
Speaker 1: be an early elimination and a bit of a disappointing
Speaker 1: end to the season. So yeah, I'd put in the
Speaker 1: in the sort of fifty ish fifty five range, just
Speaker 1: based on on sort of the vibes lately, which have
Speaker 1: felt a little bit off. Let's talk about those Guardians
Speaker 1: who are just yeah, you know, don't hear a thing
Speaker 1: about it for six months and you turn around and
Speaker 1: hop Zeria Marriage is putting up MVP numbers and they're
Speaker 1: a lot to make the World Card. It's just the
Speaker 1: same thing every year, isn't it, Darius.
Speaker 4: Yeah, except somehow I think worse this year because usually
Speaker 4: you're at least like, oh, the Guardians will true out
Speaker 4: the pitching and like, I'm pretty sure Cad Smith is
Speaker 4: their best pitcher this year, and it's not particularly so
Speaker 4: he's in the bullpen. Like yeah, I think like Garvin
Speaker 4: Williams is interesting. I think is more more more there maybe,
Speaker 4: But there isn't a guy there, you know, there's no
Speaker 4: Corey Kluber here. There's nobody You're like, oh, this guy
Speaker 4: is going to put the team on his back and
Speaker 4: take him to the World Series. It's not happening. And
Speaker 4: the lineup is dreadful. It's Ramirez. I guess Kyle Menzade's
Speaker 4: come around a bit. Even Stephen Kuan's not really hitting
Speaker 4: that well. And that's it, Like it's it's just terrible.
Speaker 4: So I have no confidence in the Guardians. They have
Speaker 4: no business being here. I'm giving them a twenty and
Speaker 4: that means they will go to the World Series.
Speaker 2: Twenty is a raticate. It looks like they're quite scrangy,
Speaker 2: go scrappy, tenacious, not actually any good, but somehow like
Speaker 2: still there to annoy you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a client clients, Okay. Rob Any further takes
Speaker 1: on the Guardians.
Speaker 2: Well, they're herpes, aren't they. You know, they're not very good.
Speaker 2: They're crusty, and they keep coming back. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: it's insane. This is in your pocket? Are they here again?
Speaker 2: Next to my pocket? We'll edit that out as well.
Speaker 2: Just for the record, I don't have herpes, but the
Speaker 2: kleetl Linians I like herpes. I mean it's just that,
Speaker 2: you know, how are they there again? It's insane, like
Speaker 2: the Twins should be there. There is no reason the
Speaker 2: Twins aren't where the the Guardians are now, it's it's nonsensical,
Speaker 2: you know the fact that they're still in with a
Speaker 2: shout of this thing, sir. Yeah, they give away the
Speaker 2: whole roster, absolutely, but before they gave away their whole roster,
Speaker 2: they should have been where they are, Like, what is
Speaker 2: Rock about the Delhi doing there that the Twins aren't
Speaker 2: where the Guardians are they? The Guardians are just they've
Speaker 2: been bad for years, like no one has had any
Speaker 2: faith in the Guardians for years, and and here they
Speaker 2: are yet again, you know, and if they get to
Speaker 2: the playoffs, just it's it's gone in a heartbeat, like
Speaker 2: they're not getting anywhere. Fast forward a couple of months
Speaker 2: and we're talking about the World Series winners. But I'm
Speaker 2: giving them an eighteen. It's the key leg wounder. You know,
Speaker 2: like when you have keys in your your pocket and
Speaker 2: you're bumped into something or you try to shift something
Speaker 2: with keys in your pocket and they've stabbed into your leg.
Speaker 2: So that my pocket monster is the key leg wounder
Speaker 2: for eighteen, which is a pigeon, a pigot, pigeot, pigeot chose, Okay, fine,
Speaker 2: I will drop it to seventeen, which is a pigeot
Speaker 2: toeto pigeons.
Speaker 1: I am excited to see how John Kenzy, Noel Big
Speaker 1: Christmas himself and his negative one WRC plus takes over
Speaker 1: October this time, because you just know there'll be another
Speaker 1: random pitch hit spot where he'll come up with an
Speaker 1: insanely clutch home run. But he has been bad this season.
Speaker 1: Onto the West. Speaking of teams that just do not die,
Speaker 1: the Houston Astros are back atop the division, which I
Speaker 1: guess we probably all expected but took their time ascending
Speaker 1: to the very top. Do we expect them to stay there?
Speaker 1: Do we think they're going to be another threat come October?
Speaker 1: Or is this a bit of a mirage given sort
Speaker 1: of the way the rest of divisions played out here?
Speaker 2: Darius, I think, you know, the Astros are maybe more
Speaker 2: vulnerable than they've ever been, and yet here we are
Speaker 2: again and they're still in first place, and you sort
Speaker 2: of feel like even if they fell out at first place,
Speaker 2: they'll still get in the playoffs and be an absolute pain.
Speaker 2: They've got Valdez, They've got Brown. You know, having two
Speaker 2: absolute studs is going to get you a long way
Speaker 2: in the playoffs. And they're still I mean, who knows
Speaker 2: when we're going to see what you're done others again,
Speaker 2: but they're still guys in this lineup that you're worried about.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think I have confidence in the Astros.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just because they're the Astros and I shouldn't.
Speaker 2: And I could easily see the Mariners taking this division,
Speaker 2: and I did boldly predict that the Astros would not
Speaker 2: win this division the season, So I am kind of
Speaker 2: rooting for Seattle to do it. But I think the
Speaker 2: Astroids is going to be in the playoffs anyway, and
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be a pain forever they face.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to give them a sixty two and
Speaker 2: I'm going to say, well, yeah, they're kind of like
Speaker 2: in a final Boss, really, aren't they? They're always the
Speaker 2: final Boss. So I'm just gonna say the mewtwo. So
Speaker 2: another Polyrath. There's two polygraths we've had school. We definitely
Speaker 2: should have made the scale one two hundred and fifty one. No,
Speaker 2: the semi Pokemon scale fifteen to eighty seven. That's what
Speaker 2: it shouldn't be. Astro I mean, I can't disagree with
Speaker 2: anything they're like, I don't think they're going to win
Speaker 2: the division. But then I didn't think they would be
Speaker 2: where they are now, so they probably will. They're the
Speaker 2: anti Angels. You know, every year you think, oh, this
Speaker 2: is the year for the Angels, we keep saying about
Speaker 2: the Astros, of this is the year They're not going
Speaker 2: to do it. But here they are again, And yeah,
Speaker 2: they're quite good despite justin Verlander. So yeah, I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't think of as most of us can't the
Speaker 2: postseason without the Astros at this point. So, yes, they're
Speaker 2: going to get there. Yes, they'll probably get to the
Speaker 2: Alcs again despite last year's missing it. I don't think
Speaker 2: they'll win it, but they're they're a decent let's say
Speaker 2: decent seventy two. No, that's far too high. Sixty eight
Speaker 2: sixty eight. Sorry, sorry, I like how you said far
Speaker 2: too high. And then we're down four. We already had
Speaker 2: one of those. Okay, I'm gonna go down five to.
Speaker 1: Choke.
Speaker 2: Choke.
Speaker 1: They do seem to be increasingly beset by injuries, which
Speaker 1: doesn't help either. They seem to suffer a good deal
Speaker 1: of bad luck, and even the guys that have come back,
Speaker 1: like Arraghetti has not looked great since he came back
Speaker 1: from injury. So I worry from a depth perspective. So
Speaker 1: I look at the pitching staff and yeah, those two
Speaker 1: guys at the top are great, but after that, slightly concerned.
Speaker 1: And then the line up again they've actually performed pretty well.
Speaker 1: But I look at the list of names of guys
Speaker 1: who are like leading the way for them and it
Speaker 1: doesn't blow me away, which maybe says more about me,
Speaker 1: you know, and my views on Jake Myers on Maris
Speaker 1: showed bond. But I just struggle a little bit with
Speaker 1: those guys being the sort of anchors of you, of
Speaker 1: your lineup. But it is the astros, they always find
Speaker 1: a way, So yeah, put them around the sixty mark
Speaker 1: for me as well. I had them yeah as in
Speaker 1: me out as my Poe one, because that's the Pokemon
Speaker 1: always gets beaten up in the in the TV show,
Speaker 1: and they're pretty beaten up right now.
Speaker 2: So it still comes back every episode from.
Speaker 1: Comes back every episode in the area is you know,
Speaker 1: smiling again saying that's right. Yeah, let's two and.
Speaker 2: You know team Rocket that works well with Houston, so well,
Speaker 2: that's true.
Speaker 1: Actually I didn't even put two and ta together on
Speaker 1: that one Rocket.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming it's not about salad.
Speaker 1: Your team Rocket when it comes to salad. Aren't you
Speaker 1: the Seattle Mariner? So what that means, don't don't distract
Speaker 1: yourself with that the Seattle Mariners. Do we believe? Is
Speaker 1: this finally the year or is it another you know,
Speaker 1: heartbreaking any to the season for them?
Speaker 2: I believe, I do believe. I think they've got moxie.
Speaker 2: Is that a Pokemon moxie? I think they've got I've
Speaker 2: got that sort of that sort of like everyone's behind
Speaker 2: the Mariners. You know that they're there's the level winness
Speaker 2: of Big Dumper. You know, they've they've got rand Ero
Speaker 2: as a rainer, like they've got the phenomenal pitching that
Speaker 2: was obviously slightly absenced this year with the injuries. But
Speaker 2: don't I don't dislike the Mariners. I don't think anyone
Speaker 2: can dislike the Mariners. So I think there's almost a
Speaker 2: group will behind them doing okay, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: everyone other than the Astros are going to be sort
Speaker 2: of wanting them as their kind of second team. I
Speaker 2: can't really see who else you root for as your
Speaker 2: second team in all of this, So yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: think that's you know, vibes, is a good enough reason
Speaker 2: to put them there, but it's sort of starting to
Speaker 2: come together. I like what they did in the trade deadline.
Speaker 2: Suarez was obviously a big ad, and they've got Nayler
Speaker 2: at first, who does somehow seems to be a fantastic
Speaker 2: bas dealer. And those two bits couldn't have slotted more
Speaker 2: perfectly into this team. That's that's exactly what they needed.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm fairly high on the Mariners, and I
Speaker 2: think there's there's a run in this and I think
Speaker 2: there's a decent seventy two. Let's say seventy two. I
Speaker 2: reckon seventy two on the fifteen to eighty seven scale,
Speaker 2: And I've run out of makeup Pokemon, So let's say
Speaker 2: what else goes in your pocket? Ah? No, I can't
Speaker 2: say that. Never mind, carry on, carry on.
Speaker 1: I'm a believer too, you know, against my better judgment,
Speaker 1: I just feels like a different team. Maybe that's more
Speaker 1: because of Cayle Allian. Just like the absolute fairies heal
Speaker 1: season he's having. They've got a guy who is legitimately
Speaker 1: like you have to pitch around him, he's that good,
Speaker 1: and even then he'll take you deep anyway, which they
Speaker 1: haven't had really ever in my baseball watching lifetime, and
Speaker 1: then the guys around that performing like Julio Randy for once,
Speaker 1: you kind of feel that they've got enough decent hitters
Speaker 1: that they're not just going to be a complete walkover
Speaker 1: in the postseason if they get there. And then on
Speaker 1: the pitching side, I mean we you know, it's been
Speaker 1: clear for a while, but they have got good starters
Speaker 1: with depth. You know, Wu's been great this year. Castillo,
Speaker 1: Gilbert Kirby. That that's a legit top four if they
Speaker 1: can all stay healthy. I like that going into the playoffs. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Minos has had an amazing season the ballpen, and they've
Speaker 1: got other arms in there to spire Matt Brash like
Speaker 1: that is a legitimate weapon in October that I think
Speaker 1: could rival any other team. So yeah, against my best
Speaker 1: judgment'm I believe I put them around the seventy mark
Speaker 1: as well. But bring us back down to earth, Darius,
Speaker 1: Why is it all going to end in them crushing
Speaker 1: and burning?
Speaker 2: I am here to bring you back down to earth.
Speaker 2: I'm going to readly some numbers, Okay, one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty numbers, two and twenty more than a one hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety one one hundred and eleven fifty. These are
Speaker 2: Carl Rallies WRC plus numbers by month. He has struck
Speaker 2: out forty point eight percent of the time in August,
Speaker 2: Big Slumper, as Ben Enenburg dubbed in one Effectively World
Speaker 2: this week. The Mariners have run this guy into the
Speaker 2: ground and it's been an unbelievable season. But you're telling
Speaker 2: me that he's going to come out there in October
Speaker 2: and still going to be able to do this.
Speaker 1: Yes, chance, absolutely, What part of the Big Dumper story
Speaker 1: has been logical from the start?
Speaker 4: I love this, I mean even more stupid Josh Naylor. Yes,
Speaker 4: eleven stolen bases in seventeen games. He's the slowest non
Speaker 4: catcher in baseball. I've been saying this for years. Anybody
Speaker 4: can steal a base like I've fed up with people
Speaker 4: citing Sprint Speed. Shut up about Sprincebeed.
Speaker 2: It does not matter.
Speaker 4: Anybody can seal the bats. Anytime you hear your fancy
Speaker 4: analysts for ranting one about Spincebeed, just send him an
Speaker 4: email and say shut up and then stop listening to
Speaker 4: their podcast. Wow, nonsense, that's why Sprint Speed ran over.
Speaker 4: The Mariners are the Marinists they've never made the World Series.
Speaker 4: I think the rotation is great. Everybody knows the rotation
Speaker 4: is great. I love the rotation. Are Wires five WRC plus?
Speaker 4: Since they trained for him, I mean, the diamond Backs
Speaker 4: must be laughing their asses off. They bought the dip,
Speaker 4: they got the peak production. Like, here you go, Jerry,
Speaker 4: give us some prospects, we'll sell it.
Speaker 2: Send you in back. And now he's in one of
Speaker 2: his slumps because it's Wires. This is what he does. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not going to happen. I want it to have him,
Speaker 2: It's not going to happen. I'll give them a fifty
Speaker 2: because I've had a nice season, and yeah, I like
Speaker 2: that they tried at the trade deadline for once. But
Speaker 2: that's our second dig lit Their Pikachu, the Mariner's is
Speaker 2: a Pikachuo. They've shocked us a little bit this season.
Speaker 2: Kind of cute.
Speaker 4: Everybody's rooting for it, but actually, if you took a
Speaker 4: Pikachu like up against a good Pokemon, you would just lose.
Speaker 2: I had twenty five. It doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: I had the same idea with my my Pokemon went
Speaker 1: for ev instead. Cute. Everyone loves it, but it's probably
Speaker 1: going to be useless when it actually matters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's not good unless you like apply something can
Speaker 4: level it up a little bit exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably, yeah, something you do speak sense. I want
Speaker 1: to disagree, but it's one of things, particularly callings. It's like,
Speaker 1: hang on a minute, this is the same spire as
Speaker 1: we gave away two years ago. What the hell I
Speaker 1: thought he was better now Marina's fans will be feeling
Speaker 1: with that, but look, what can you do? It could
Speaker 1: become good. Yeah. I still believe in Big Dumper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he probably is exhausted, but he's not just going to
Speaker 1: turn into a pump.
Speaker 2: I may have you bet you asked for that, so
Speaker 2: I may have got.
Speaker 1: Great sprints being run right onto the n It might
Speaker 1: be quick with the NL because we've been we've been
Speaker 1: long on the Alsis. Apologies to NL teams, but let's
Speaker 1: let's dive into the East. You know what, Let's just
Speaker 1: start with the Mets. I think they'll be quick. It's
Speaker 1: all falling apart for the Mets, isn't it. Do we
Speaker 1: have any reason to believe they can arrest this skid
Speaker 1: and be the team that they looked pretty good for
Speaker 1: the first half, or how they truly turned into a
Speaker 1: lineup of a reasonably good one so too, and a
Speaker 1: bunch of people who can't hit. Oh and I guess
Speaker 1: Peter a Lonzo hits stingers and the rotation that is
Speaker 1: probably just as weak as we feared at the start
Speaker 1: of the season. Is there any reason to think that
Speaker 1: they'll turn this around? Do you have any confidence because
Speaker 1: I don't, rob No, not in.
Speaker 2: Not in the rotation, though I think they are the
Speaker 2: nl Orioles. From that point of view, we we knew
Speaker 2: that rotation was going to be a bit crappy. It
Speaker 2: is a bit crappy. I think the lineup will do
Speaker 2: enough to get them to the postseason, and from there,
Speaker 2: I think they're going to struggle a little. So no,
Speaker 2: not not particularly any any faith in them, but equally
Speaker 2: not not horrendous. So give me, give me a thirty
Speaker 2: nine on them, which is the fake quid, Because you've
Speaker 2: always got a fake quid in your pocket. It's never
Speaker 2: a real one, and it doesn't matter how many times
Speaker 2: you seem to give it away, it keeps coming back
Speaker 2: and change. So the fake quid, because they've got a
Speaker 2: bit of money. So what I would I say? Thirty nine?
Speaker 2: That's really a a jiggly puff perfect No, not, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a normal fairy. Apparently, I have no idea. I
Speaker 2: don't know what to say, so that really, that's a
Speaker 2: normal fairy.
Speaker 1: The Pokemon I was primate because the description of Wikipedia
Speaker 1: described him as getting angry courses primeates blood to rush
Speaker 1: faster than usual, tightening its body muscles, but making it dumber,
Speaker 1: which feels like exactly what Mets fans are doing at
Speaker 1: the moment, getting extremely angry and irrational. Darius, do you
Speaker 1: think they'll turn around?
Speaker 2: I was going to for wheezing, just because of the sheer,
Speaker 2: toxic cloud of vibes that's covered the entire of New
Speaker 2: York over the last month. Do I think they can
Speaker 2: turn it around? We said, what does this Mets rotation
Speaker 2: look like in August? Here's what it looks like. Not
Speaker 2: particularly encouraging, is the answer to that question.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm not confident in the Mets. So yeah, they're plagued
Speaker 4: by similar problems to the Yankees. I think you can't
Speaker 4: super argue with Francisco Lindor and I'm Soto at the
Speaker 4: top of your lineup, So yeah, I have more confidence
Speaker 4: in the lineup, but I think they've got some pitching
Speaker 4: issues still, and they didn't go out and get that
Speaker 4: guy who you were like, oh, we're scared of him
Speaker 4: in the playoffs. And I think even if they do
Speaker 4: ballpen this to death, they're going to run out of
Speaker 4: steam sooner or later. So I think they're a fine team.
Speaker 2: I guess I'll give them a fifty one, but I
Speaker 2: don't think they are the super team that they want
Speaker 2: to be yet, and they're going to need a lot
Speaker 2: of work on the pitching side together. Well.
Speaker 1: The benefactor of the Mets slump has obviously been the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Phillies, who it doesn't feel like I have necessarily
Speaker 1: hit top gear yet this season, but yet they find
Speaker 1: themselves with a five game division lead and probably one
Speaker 1: of the highest seeds going into the playoffs. I'm more
Speaker 1: of a believer in the Phillies just because you know,
Speaker 1: they have those guys in the rotation that are experienced,
Speaker 1: that are good, that have been there, done that, starting
Speaker 1: obviously with Zach Wheeler, but Sanchez has been great, Suarez
Speaker 1: at very good moments this season, and even the bullpen
Speaker 1: seems to be improving a little. And then the lineup.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think it's all come together for
Speaker 1: them yet, but Schwarber is an absolute monster Harper turn
Speaker 1: of real muta. You kind of know what you're getting
Speaker 1: with those guys and your piece together the rest, so
Speaker 1: I would be a believer. I have them at sixty
Speaker 1: ish on my score, maybe even sixty five. I think
Speaker 1: they're a good.
Speaker 2: Sixty five is a alkazam Ale.
Speaker 1: That's a very pokemon.
Speaker 2: You weren't far off because next to it is something
Speaker 2: called Victory Bell, which would have been very apt.
Speaker 1: They have a big bell and victory.
Speaker 2: Well. Quickly beforehand, I did just ask which pokemon the
Speaker 2: Mets are, and Tom came back with something called side
Speaker 2: Duck because he promises so much but delivers so little
Speaker 2: and he's a little bell end. And Russell went with Onyx.
Speaker 2: Do those make any sense?
Speaker 4: Side Duck is like just a little duck that gets
Speaker 4: confused and uses sight of powers that doesn't do it
Speaker 4: very effectively. Onyx is just like a bunch of rocks
Speaker 4: in a string. That's that makes sense to me. For
Speaker 4: the Mets, it looks it looks like if you made
Speaker 4: a snake out of rocks. Basically, that's what I'll next
Speaker 4: to try. Okay, okay, yeah, Yeah, I'll go with that.
Speaker 2: The Phillies. Yeah, I believe in the Phillies. If you
Speaker 2: genuinely good teams, like who is genuinely good and that
Speaker 2: is the Phillies, Like they've they've got it all there.
Speaker 2: They've got really good pitching, they've got they've got guys
Speaker 2: who can thump, they've got the star power, they've you know,
Speaker 2: they've got a little bit of depth going on there.
Speaker 2: I'm all in on the Phillies. I think there's really
Speaker 2: really could and should be their year. We'll talk about
Speaker 2: the Dodgers in a minute and how maybe they're not
Speaker 2: quite quite the power we thought what they were. So
Speaker 2: I don't think the door is any more open for
Speaker 2: the Phillies. Then then it's going to be this year.
Speaker 2: Then they've obviously got the Mets are going to keep
Speaker 2: throwing money at the problem until they're amazing. So this
Speaker 2: is gonna be a good year for the Phillies. You're
Speaker 2: right now, I'm not sure they're fully at top gear yet,
Speaker 2: but the fact they're not in top gear means there's
Speaker 2: probably more to go. And yeah, if I were a
Speaker 2: betting man, which unfortunately some of the guys are allegedly
Speaker 2: I would. I would probably put my money money on
Speaker 2: the Phillies this year. I'm super in on them. So yeah,
Speaker 2: let's give the seventy one, which is the Victory Bell,
Speaker 2: which makes perfect sense. So I'm going for that one
Speaker 2: seventy one the Phillies. Yeah, Victory Bell was my pick
Speaker 2: for obvious reasons. The rotation is eli. I was on
Speaker 2: the Christopher Sanchez train this season. But yeah, top to
Speaker 2: bottom of they're fantastic. Donbo going out and getting Duan
Speaker 2: Duran is like classic Donbau move, Like I have identified
Speaker 2: the number one Weeklys of my roster and it's the
Speaker 2: absolute shut down guy that I can trust in the
Speaker 2: night and inning and then one and go home. So
Speaker 2: I have high, high philis confidence. I think that I'd
Speaker 2: like it if the lineup was a little bit better
Speaker 2: than it had been. But we also know that these guys,
Speaker 2: you know, you can kind of believe that Bryce is
Speaker 2: going to come up with a big postseason moment, can't you.
Speaker 2: Nick Cassianis will suddenly turn into like some stud right
Speaker 2: fielder and mash in the playoffs. I'm pretty comfortent with them,
Speaker 2: so I'm going to give them a sixty four. Sixty
Speaker 2: four is a cadabra. I see where they're gone with
Speaker 2: these silly magical names. Okay, yeah, the cadabra. You're muted again.
Speaker 2: But Podcasting Excellence somehow heard a sound of your muted.
Speaker 2: It's done the old double mute.
Speaker 1: I did the double mute. Good lord, we'll try that
Speaker 1: transition for the third time. Speaking of magic, the Milwaukee Brewers,
Speaker 1: what's going on over there? I'll just cutut the nonsense
Speaker 1: in the middle. Yeah, there's something bizarre happening in the
Speaker 1: water in Milwaukee. Who I mean, we are you know,
Speaker 1: they always seem to find a way to win, but
Speaker 1: they are finding a way to win relentlessly at the moment.
Speaker 1: I think they're on a twelve game winning streak, which
Speaker 1: backs up and eleven game winning streak they had a
Speaker 1: few weeks back. They've won something like thirty four of
Speaker 1: their last forty or or something insane like that. They've
Speaker 1: been on a heater like no other of late. And
Speaker 1: I think now, do have the best record in baseball?
Speaker 1: Do we think they're the best team in baseball? Do
Speaker 1: we have high confidence in them? I'm not gonna cloud
Speaker 1: any of your judgments, but I'm a little bit unsure
Speaker 1: they can continue up quite at this pace, especially with
Speaker 1: their lineup. But Rob, do you think the Brewers are legit?
Speaker 1: Are they your sort of team to beat in the
Speaker 1: playoffs based on their form of late?
Speaker 2: Are they legit? I think they're a good team who've
Speaker 2: gotten a bit of luck. I think they've got enough
Speaker 2: of a lead now that I really don't think it
Speaker 2: matters too much if they drop off a bit, because
Speaker 2: I think they've they've probably got the distance between them
Speaker 2: and the rest of the league to make that make
Speaker 2: it stick regardless of if they you know, if they
Speaker 2: dropped five hundred for a bit, they're still probably going
Speaker 2: to be there. The Brewers have got that small market
Speaker 2: team not quite spending that bit to make the big
Speaker 2: changes that seems to have hurt the other small market teams,
Speaker 2: including the Brewers in the postseason last few years. You
Speaker 2: look at the Rays, you look at the Guardians, you
Speaker 2: look at the Brewers, and they're just not getting through
Speaker 2: on that that sort of magical quality they need for
Speaker 2: the last last last bit. You know, they they haven't
Speaker 2: gone out and got Duran Duran, and they haven't gone
Speaker 2: out and you know got the big bopper, I said
Speaker 2: Duran Duran. Yes, I'm fully aware they haven't got and
Speaker 2: got that big bubber at the deadline, and that's gonna
Speaker 2: hurt them. They'll they'll get there, no doubt they'll get there,
Speaker 2: and they are a good team, but they've not spent
Speaker 2: that little bit to make them a spectacular team, and
Speaker 2: it's gonna hurt them, as it does every year they
Speaker 2: make it to the to the playoffs. So give me,
Speaker 2: give me a sixty six for for the Brewers. And
Speaker 2: I've gotten down as the their Pokemon, as the surprise
Speaker 2: fiver because you know, when you find a surprise fiber
Speaker 2: in your pocket, it's always it's always a good day.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I love the vibes. It's it's a it's
Speaker 2: a great feel. And that's that's where the Brewers are
Speaker 2: right now, Darius.
Speaker 1: Can they keep this up in October? I mean, even
Speaker 1: the rotation, I just don't believe in it, really, But
Speaker 1: they do keep winning, don't they?
Speaker 2: They do? And they are again it's you know, Cleveland
Speaker 2: n L. Version.
Speaker 4: I guess we sort of all doubt them a little
Speaker 4: bit every year. And I don't think we thought this
Speaker 4: would be a Brewers and Cubs race in this division.
Speaker 4: But they're hosing down the Cubs right now, and I
Speaker 4: think the lead is such that even if the Cubs
Speaker 4: make a bit of a comeback, it's kind of looking
Speaker 4: a bit too late.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: That said, no, I don't really believe in this. We've
Speaker 4: seen the Brewers make the playoffs almost every season and
Speaker 4: then they have this problem when they get to the
Speaker 4: playoffs where they don't score any runs. And it's not
Speaker 4: like you look at this lineup and go, yeah, they're
Speaker 4: going to score loads of runs. I think the depth
Speaker 4: helps them a lot in the regular season and when
Speaker 4: it gets to the playoffs and it's kind of all
Speaker 4: we can concentrate, you know, those roster spots in something
Speaker 4: a bit less. I think that is not a good
Speaker 4: thing for the Brewers. It's going to count. And maybe
Speaker 4: Andrew Vaughan is suddenly a stud you know, that would
Speaker 4: be the big bat that they've been missing. It's been
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifteen plays appearances, and he looks incredible.
Speaker 4: So I guess anything as possible. But yeah, like like
Speaker 4: Rob says, you look up and down this lineup and yeah,
Speaker 4: apart from Yevich, there's nobody here who's you know, really
Speaker 4: had that history of setting them all on fire and
Speaker 4: Jackson Cheerio hasn't really gone anywhere offensively, so I'd like it.
Speaker 4: You know, it'd be great if they could finally do it,
Speaker 4: But I still have a lot of doubts and likely
Speaker 4: say the rotation as well. It's it's questionable. Maybe Woodruff
Speaker 4: and Miserawski can hold that up together, but guy coming
Speaker 4: off major injury, a layoff, and rookie with very little
Speaker 4: experience of pitching that deep into a season probably not
Speaker 4: the two guys you're confident.
Speaker 2: About hanging your help.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to give them a fifty four just
Speaker 4: because they've had a great regular season and they're definitely
Speaker 4: going to be one of the top two seeds I think,
Speaker 4: But I'm not going to predict they go real deep
Speaker 4: into this postseason because I think they'll get a bit
Speaker 4: exposed when the teams that can concentrate on them a
Speaker 4: bit more and put their best foot forward really have
Speaker 4: the opportunity to do.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: You don't want to expose your little birlin. I guess
Speaker 2: I'm going to say they're a ditto because they kind
Speaker 2: of look like and them orphless, but actually they can
Speaker 2: pretty much be anything ditto ditto. What's the Ditto. Look,
Speaker 2: let's have a look.
Speaker 1: I gave them dragon Kite really friendly looking, but also
Speaker 1: it's shockingly powerful.
Speaker 4: Looks like a blob, yeah, Patrick, But dit To can
Speaker 4: mimic whatever Pokemon it's facing, So if you're a Ditto
Speaker 4: can just become the really powerful pokemon.
Speaker 2: I've seen dragon Nite, and this is what was introduced
Speaker 2: to me as a as a Chariza the other day.
Speaker 2: It's a big orange dragon.
Speaker 4: I can see how you would get dragon Night and
Speaker 4: Charas are confused to somebody who's never played pok.
Speaker 1: They are both big orange dragons.
Speaker 4: Yeahs, dragon Knight does look much more friendly than are though,
Speaker 4: I'll give you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah to the friendly confines and the Chicago Cubs see
Speaker 1: you probably kicking themselves a little bit that they aren't
Speaker 1: in control of this division, given they've been pretty good,
Speaker 1: but they've had to sit and watch Brewers win every
Speaker 1: single game for the last month, which has not been pleasant.
Speaker 1: But they're looking company for a World card spot at worst.
Speaker 1: Do we think they've got what it takes to make
Speaker 1: a run in October? How do we feel about the Cubs?
Speaker 2: Rob Yeah, I think they I think we were all
Speaker 2: sort of looking at the way they added over the
Speaker 2: off season. There was a bit of questioning to start
Speaker 2: with about some subtraction and then they then they got
Speaker 2: Tucker in and and you know, got in for the
Speaker 2: longer term. And wait, they haven't extended him, have they?
Speaker 2: I think of somebody else. Either way, Tucker's great. I
Speaker 2: think Tucker and PCA on a flying on the right time,
Speaker 2: Like he's not been great recently, but if they catch
Speaker 2: him hot again, those guys are enough to sort of
Speaker 2: carry the offensive a team and the defense of a team.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think they're well, well constructed, sort of
Speaker 2: solidly built team again where they've added a couple of stars.
Speaker 2: So I could I could get behind the Cubs. I
Speaker 2: think they are upper half of the playoff field at
Speaker 2: the moment, I could. I could see the Cubs going
Speaker 2: going a little way. I think they're going to struggle
Speaker 2: against the West teams, but they just need a bit
Speaker 2: of luck for their way. And yeah, they they I
Speaker 2: think they'll probably peak Championship Series. Maybe that's probably probably
Speaker 2: their peak for this year. But I'll give them a
Speaker 2: sixty two sixty two. They're good, solidly good.
Speaker 1: Darius. Do you have a special slump nickname for PCA
Speaker 1: who is running into the same kind of poor form
Speaker 1: that our friend Big Dumper is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going for like Pete crow Arms week or
Speaker 4: something like. Yeah, the fact that he got pinch it
Speaker 4: for the other day is kind of a little bit
Speaker 4: indicative of what's going on over there. I mean, yes,
Speaker 4: the dude is a stud in center field, but he
Speaker 4: has a two naughty one OVP. Now I know he's
Speaker 4: not a guy who walks a lot, but yeah, is
Speaker 4: he going to take m VP off? Otani question is
Speaker 4: rapidly fading into the distance now, isn't it. It's becoming
Speaker 4: a concern. Yes, the lineup is fantastic. I mean, these
Speaker 4: guys go really really deep. There's you know, basically not
Speaker 4: a bad hitter amongst the bunch. Quite the lineup they
Speaker 4: put out a lot of these days. That's fantastic. The
Speaker 4: pitching is real bad, and yeah, maybe shot Man can
Speaker 4: have one of those as performances. But I think they
Speaker 4: are really really vulnerable there, and they haven't got the
Speaker 4: kind of bullpen where you're like, oh, they'll just you know,
Speaker 4: let the start go three or four and they can
Speaker 4: turn it over and do the playoff thing they need,
Speaker 4: like Tiger's chaos energy. I think to make this work
Speaker 4: in the playoffs. I don't have any concerns about them
Speaker 4: scoring runs, but I think they're really going to struggle
Speaker 4: pitching wise, and you need good pitching in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: So for the offense alone, I'll give them a middling grade.
Speaker 4: But I guess I think they're about a forty nine
Speaker 4: middle of the package just because they didn't go out
Speaker 4: and get that guy that you're super scared of in the.
Speaker 2: Side, Veno Mothveno Moth. Yeah, who are the Cubs. It's
Speaker 2: a good question. I didn't think of the Cubs.
Speaker 1: I had the Cubs as a champ and they really
Speaker 1: took them, but for the sort of so much offense
Speaker 1: but not much else reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot a lot of power, no defense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe like a hitman chan or something like, yeah, all attack,
Speaker 2: no no defense.
Speaker 1: And then shockingly, there's another team to talk about in
Speaker 1: this division, and it's a Cincinnati Reds who are just
Speaker 1: hanging in there a little bit, aren't they. And they
Speaker 1: seem to be the team profiting most from this Mets
Speaker 1: slump because they have now snuck up to be just
Speaker 1: one game out in that World Card Chase. So I
Speaker 1: still would say possibly, if every team we're going to
Speaker 1: discuss today, my faith in them would be lowest going
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. But Hunter Green came back from injury
Speaker 1: last night night before and looked great. That would be
Speaker 1: a game changer if he can stay healthy and be
Speaker 1: just as good for the rest of the season. And
Speaker 1: they've had some pretty good performances from the rest of
Speaker 1: that rotation as well, which maybe makes you think that
Speaker 1: the pitching is somewhat legit. And I guess the lineup
Speaker 1: you've got Ellie and dudes who maybe you can turn
Speaker 1: it on in the playoffs. Is there a reason to
Speaker 1: believe in these guys? Rob or Am I right to say?
Speaker 1: It's been a nice story, but ye're not making it
Speaker 1: past the World Card round even if you do get in.
Speaker 2: I honestly have no idea, If I'm honest, I can't
Speaker 2: have hadn't really noticed the Cubs at the Cubs the Reds,
Speaker 2: I had no idea they were even there. See I
Speaker 2: proven my point. Yeah, they're They're just great. I mean,
Speaker 2: who knew they were? They were? They were there? They
Speaker 2: are good Good luck to them. You really have very
Speaker 2: little to say about the the Reds. They are they
Speaker 2: are they are missing phone man hoo, come on, because
Speaker 2: I didn't know they were there. They've gone. I'm patting
Speaker 2: my pockets and I was like, oh, oh, where's the Reds.
Speaker 2: They they want to see the Reds no idea. Yeah,
Speaker 2: good luck to them, but no clue. I can't have
Speaker 2: much faith. Let's give them a twenty two six more
Speaker 2: optimester six.
Speaker 4: No are give them twenty four. Yeah, it's it's kind
Speaker 4: of fun that they're still here. But I kind of
Speaker 4: agree with Rob. You just sort of haven't really thought
Speaker 4: about them very much for most of the season, which
Speaker 4: is funny for a team with arguably the most entertaining
Speaker 4: position player in the game. But yeah, they just don't
Speaker 4: have a lot and between Early and Hunter Green, they've
Speaker 4: got a star on each side, I suppose, but it
Speaker 4: kind of runs out quick afterwards. I don't really believe. Yeah,
Speaker 4: whose rotation pieces being what they are, But the real
Speaker 4: concern is that that lineup, there's just there's not a
Speaker 4: lot there get they get thin pretty fast. So I'm
Speaker 4: giving them a twenty four partly because there's a pretty
Speaker 4: good chance that they're not there at all. So I
Speaker 4: think confidence has to be relatively low.
Speaker 2: Thirty four.
Speaker 4: They've got to be one of the fire Pokemon, haven't they?
Speaker 4: For Like, you know, we've got to get a red
Speaker 4: theme going here. Maybe we just give them like a
Speaker 4: I don't know, a magma or something flamethrowing, but a
Speaker 4: bit sluggish.
Speaker 2: Twenty four is a great big snake. It looks like
Speaker 2: a cobra called arab boch. He said, look like a
Speaker 2: pirate our box. Well, hey, I'm endorsed it.
Speaker 1: That's you know, it sounded for a moment that like
Speaker 1: one of your cats was trying to argue on behalf
Speaker 1: of the Reds. Rob Did you get a sense of
Speaker 1: what they did not know?
Speaker 2: You could hear my cats if zumis wow, yeah they are.
Speaker 2: They are going mental. So I don't doubt what is
Speaker 2: going to make an appearance in the moment.
Speaker 1: There we go, someone believes in the Reds. Let's finish
Speaker 1: off with the n West then, and would you believe it?
Speaker 1: We do not have a Dodger as a top this division.
Speaker 1: The San Diego Padres have have climbed, the Dodgers have
Speaker 1: been stalling a little bit lately. The pud is now
Speaker 1: game up. I think those two are playing each other
Speaker 1: this weekend, which will be very fun that that's always
Speaker 1: a good series when these two play each other. How
Speaker 1: do you feel about the Padres, rob Are they the
Speaker 1: pick of the bunch in this division? Are they legit
Speaker 1: going into October? It feels like they I want.
Speaker 2: Them to be, But are they I saw the Padres
Speaker 2: this year and it was a wonderful place to go.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed myself there. They weren't particularly brilliant on
Speaker 2: that day, but that's just one day. I think this
Speaker 2: this division probably just risks purely on who plays the
Speaker 2: Rockies most in the running that these teams are very
Speaker 2: well matched this year. I think the Dodgers are. I
Speaker 2: think the difference maker here, the real difference maker here
Speaker 2: is is the wasting disease that Mooki Bets had had.
Speaker 2: If you add a full fired mooky Bets into the
Speaker 2: mix here, I don't think it's particularly competitive. I think
Speaker 2: there's a bit of gap between them, but that's not happened.
Speaker 2: Injuries are part of the game and they've got to
Speaker 2: contend with that. I still think the Dodgers are a
Speaker 2: better team. They're an older team, but you know, he's
Speaker 2: thrown all of the kids into the to get a reliever.
Speaker 2: So what could POSSI go wrong there? It could possibly
Speaker 2: be wrong. We're selling, selling the furniture to get a reliever.
Speaker 2: So I still believe in the Dodgers more. I think
Speaker 2: the I think the process is better. I think they
Speaker 2: they've they've got the superstars. But yeah, the the the
Speaker 2: Padres are right right there. They're right there, and you
Speaker 2: know what, they've been there for years and years. They've
Speaker 2: had the players. I still believe in them so that
Speaker 2: they're both high scorers. But I will give the Padres
Speaker 2: a sixty seven pretty high.
Speaker 1: Darius and his thoughts and the Padre they feel like
Speaker 1: a boring Padres team to me compared to you know,
Speaker 1: the Slam Diego Padres of years past. And it's like
Speaker 1: even Tatti's I feel like I've not seen as much,
Speaker 1: you know, off his bat flips and highlights of usual
Speaker 1: will be sort of in a great season. Are they
Speaker 1: going under the radar as far as Padres teams go.
Speaker 2: I don't think they are.
Speaker 4: I don't think you're wrong, because I mean, here is
Speaker 4: a list of some teams who have scored more runs
Speaker 4: than the Padres, the Miami Marlins, the Washington Nationals, the Cardinals,
Speaker 4: the Los Angeles Angels, christ these teams have all scored
Speaker 4: rob your Tampa Bay Rays've easily scored more runs than
Speaker 4: the Padres. The lineup doesn't like on the surface of it,
Speaker 4: look like the stats are that bad, but they just
Speaker 4: have not been able to generate that much offense. It's
Speaker 4: kind of surprising, really. It's not like Machado has been
Speaker 4: bad and Tatis maybe not quite the heights of peak Tutties,
Speaker 4: but still pretty good. Sana Bogartz has been fine, you know,
Speaker 4: not elite, but fine. Yeah, they've gone out. Preda has
Speaker 4: gone out and preload all over the place and got
Speaker 4: Ramon Loreano and Ryano hearns from the Oriols. It looks
Speaker 4: like an okay line up. It doesn't look like a
Speaker 4: lot of that should have scored fewer runs than all
Speaker 4: those teams, yet they have. The good news is the
Speaker 4: pitching has been fantastic, but again, kind of not the
Speaker 4: way you'd expects. Dylan Ceesars kind of sucked. Michael King
Speaker 4: has been hurt. Yes, Nick Corvett has been a great signing,
Speaker 4: but yeah, it doesn't feel the same. Slam Diego we're
Speaker 4: super scary, and yeah, here we are, and they've just
Speaker 4: taken the vision leading from the Dodgers. I think Bob's right,
Speaker 4: that's much more to do with the Dodgers than it
Speaker 4: is to do with the Padres. And yeah, maybe maybe
Speaker 4: this is the you know, one of those weird twists
Speaker 4: where the year that we're at least worried about the
Speaker 4: Padres is the year they actually go and win it all.
Speaker 4: But I can't help but feel that, yeah, there's there's
Speaker 4: still a few question marks here that they haven't really answered.
Speaker 2: The rotation. We'll see if the pitching holds up this
Speaker 2: well all all postseason. I guess yeah, I have above
Speaker 2: average confidence in them, just because they do still have
Speaker 2: the stars and they have they've been there before, They've
Speaker 2: they've had these battles with the Dodgers, and they've come
Speaker 2: pretty close to eliminating them last season as well. So
Speaker 2: I'll give them like a fifty eight. I think they're
Speaker 2: They're definitely in the mix, but I have some questions
Speaker 2: about whether that lineup can get it together and really
Speaker 2: make you scared again, and the way they have in
Speaker 2: the past, Row Live I'd.
Speaker 1: Give them, mister mind it's a smoke and mirrors mine
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna enjoy looking that one up, Rob, Yes,
Speaker 1: not not a believer. Just this doesn't feel.
Speaker 2: Nice to mine. Oh my god, what is that? That
Speaker 2: is horrific?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 2: That's that's the Padres? That's horrible? What is it that's
Speaker 2: not a bit like a man? Oh my goodness? Too long?
Speaker 2: There's one called Jinx that's just as equally awful looking.
Speaker 2: My god, why have I not seen these ones? These
Speaker 2: are horrible. No, I'm not allowing it, mister mime is struck.
Speaker 2: Pick another one. I don't like.
Speaker 1: It's one of the things you would not want to
Speaker 1: find in your in your pocket, in my pocket?
Speaker 2: God, No, what is his? His hands look like they've
Speaker 2: got too many fingers yet. Yeah, there's the right number,
Speaker 2: but it still looks like it's too many.
Speaker 1: That is weird. Let's close with the Dodges. Then we've
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about them already. But for everything
Speaker 1: we've just said about the Padres, they're still ahead of
Speaker 1: the Dodges. Right, Something is not right in La. There's
Speaker 1: a bit of a tungs and o Doyle fear all
Speaker 1: to the series just gone where o'tani was like hitting
Speaker 1: game tying home runs and striking out six, including Mike
Speaker 1: Trout twice and hitting into a triple play. And the
Speaker 1: Dodgers got swept by the Angels, which made it a
Speaker 1: season sweep for the Angels, which anytime you get beaten
Speaker 1: six times by that team without winning one, that's a
Speaker 1: red flag. What is it that's going wrong for the
Speaker 1: Dodgers at the moment, Darius? And is there any way
Speaker 1: out of it for them to kind of get back
Speaker 1: to the team that we've become accustomed to seeing over
Speaker 1: the last I don't know decade.
Speaker 4: Well, I think Rob mentioned a major factor, which is
Speaker 4: that Moki Betts is not himself, but you still look,
Speaker 4: you know, Otane Smith, Munsey Freeman, like this is you
Speaker 4: couldn't really get a better form, Like if you get
Speaker 4: gave me and you picked the best quartette from any
Speaker 4: offense in the baseball and I probably take that for
Speaker 4: like yeah, and you can't beat that. I think the
Speaker 4: ballpaen is a mess a lot of these games they've come,
Speaker 4: you know, I've gone into check often, I wake up
Speaker 4: and the Dodgers are still playing, and guess what's happening.
Speaker 4: The ballpen is a in the game. So that has
Speaker 4: been a big problem for them. And yes, the pitching
Speaker 4: is coming back yet it's starting to get healthy, you know,
Speaker 4: it gets now, and Glassnell's back now. And Clayton Kersher
Speaker 4: has you know, still got a three forty in era
Speaker 4: even though he can only throw eighty nine because it's
Speaker 4: Clayton Kershew. But yeah, that that bullpen concerns me. They've
Speaker 4: had some in your issues in there and in the
Speaker 4: past sometimes they've just been able to whack a starter
Speaker 4: in the bullpad and fix it, but that doesn't always work,
Speaker 4: and it just yeah, the vibes feel a bit bit
Speaker 4: off in LA now. We saw them limp into last
Speaker 4: season's postseason with no rotation and win it all. And
Speaker 4: I think when you have the amount of stars these
Speaker 4: guys have, you know, most teams would kill for the
Speaker 4: names that I just mentioned and I didn't even mention. Yes,
Speaker 4: you know me Yama Moto, who's been pretty elite this year.
Speaker 4: So confidence is high with the Dodgers, but it's not
Speaker 4: as high as it has been. I think I've I've
Speaker 4: maybe got them kind of around the fillies area around
Speaker 4: that sixty five ish because it's the Dodgers, but you know,
Speaker 4: they're the Dodgers. They ought to be in the high
Speaker 4: seventies to eighty kind of range. That's that's where they
Speaker 4: ought to be with this roster. So yes, I have
Speaker 4: I have concerns, but you know Dodgers level concerns where
Speaker 4: we're like, oh, we're worried about this thing, but they're
Speaker 4: still obviously going to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd agree, and that smells back healthy. I think
Speaker 1: that's a big one for them. If they can keep
Speaker 1: him healthy, that's an effective ace that they can have
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. And you do feel like, get them
Speaker 1: in there and get them as healthy as possible and
Speaker 1: they can put it all together if they need to.
Speaker 1: Pokemon I have for them was was snort acts obviously
Speaker 1: sleeping giant, ready to to rear your day when they
Speaker 1: wake up.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, heady bear. Yeah. I mean the thing about
Speaker 2: the Dodgers is they've given up a lot of runs,
Speaker 2: but they've also scored a lot of runs. And the
Speaker 2: thing they're getting back is not hitting, which they don't
Speaker 2: need is pitching. And so it's there's not a lot
Speaker 2: needs absorbing at that the bottom end of their pitching,
Speaker 2: and it takes one of these guys to make it
Speaker 2: in the bullpen to just bring that up and Darrett's
Speaker 2: spot on, like they went the whole way with no
Speaker 2: rotation whatsoever last year. This year they've got a bitter one,
Speaker 2: so they're already starting from a better place. So I
Speaker 2: feel like what is coming back from them the snails
Speaker 2: that you know that part of the world is gonna
Speaker 2: gonna have a bigger impact on this team. Then then
Speaker 2: getting a hitter back or something like that. And yes,
Speaker 2: the five war missing from rookie Betts would be the difference,
Speaker 2: but you could easily put that in the bottom end
Speaker 2: with the pitching as well. So I can't. I still
Speaker 2: can't look far past the Dodgers, and I'm very happy
Speaker 2: to give them a seventy seventy four.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. Well we did it. Do you
Speaker 1: work a team, that's all? If you didn't talk about
Speaker 1: your team, unfortunately your team is terrible. Better look next year.
Speaker 1: But there we have it, Jersey go on quick ear
Speaker 1: of you guys. Maybe you've already looked at it because
Speaker 1: it is hilarious. But can you guess the Rockies run differential?
Speaker 2: I have seen it, so I will I will stain,
Speaker 2: but I don't know what it is I'm going to
Speaker 2: say negative two hundred and forty seven.
Speaker 1: Not even close, negative three hundred and twenty six. They
Speaker 1: are already considerably worse than the White Sox were last
Speaker 1: year in that department. And that's one or two came
Speaker 1: when he had to do.
Speaker 2: I actually had a little, you know revival. So before
Speaker 2: the eight game losing streak. Yeah, yeah, they're runder read
Speaker 2: that's half if you take all the negative run differentials,
Speaker 2: they account for more than half of it.
Speaker 1: Believable.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean talk about but they're probably not
Speaker 2: going to be the worst team ever. So that's good.
Speaker 2: Oh my beer said the Rockies.
Speaker 1: At least we could confidently say they're not getting unlucky.
Speaker 1: Let's let's end it there. Thank you guys for jumping
Speaker 1: on talking for those teams. Good to talk a bit
Speaker 1: bit of baseball again. We always say we're going to
Speaker 1: be much more regular with podcasts going forward and then
Speaker 1: failed to live up to it. But I think we
Speaker 1: will genuinely try as we get towards the point at
Speaker 1: the end of the season to do this a little
Speaker 1: bit more often. As mentioned, we've got some good content
Speaker 1: going onto the website at the moment, gave I know
Speaker 1: is working hard on getting so much content up there
Speaker 1: along with the rest of the editorial team, so do
Speaker 1: check that out. I do also want to shout out
Speaker 1: the Basis Covered crew who are doing the coverage every
Speaker 1: Sunday on the BBC at the moment of Yeah Sunday
Speaker 1: Night Game, so make sure you check them out. Obviously
Speaker 1: good friends of the podcast. Hopefully we'll get a chance
Speaker 1: maybe even talk to them on a show at some
Speaker 1: point with the rest of the season, but they're a
Speaker 1: very entertaining bunch that could definitely or definitely warrant our supports.
Speaker 1: To make sure to do that, and yeah, get in
Speaker 1: touch with any questions thoughts some we've gone through tonight
Speaker 1: Pokemon or not related, and we will catch you on
Speaker 1: the very next show. Thanks very much,