Welcome, welcome back everybody.
It's episode four of Four Guys and Still No Clue.
Kenji's not with us this week.
He's getting some Hawaiian honeys out there in Hawaii.
But we got a lot to talk about.
Second half has begun.
Brady, Joe, and me.
Let's get into it.
["I'm Not a Man"]
I realized that was not correct grammar there to start.
It was Brady, Joe, and I, if my mom's watching this,
she's going to tag me on that.
But we're back.
Another week, another episode.
Another great week of Major League Baseball,
even though there were four days with no games, really.
No impactful games.
First and foremost, Kenji is not with us this week.
He's out in Hawaii hanging out with his dad.
So everybody send your condolences to him.
I'm just kidding.
I wish we were in Hawaii recording with him.
But Joe and Brady are here with me today.
First and foremost, Brady, how you doing, brother?
You know, we're doing all right.
It's good to be back for another episode here this week.
Had a fun, fun time watching the All-Star break.
Certainly.
And seeing all the fun stuff going on.
And that's about it.
Absolutely.
Joe, our resident frog lover, how you doing, brother?
Still lost.
Still out there loving frogs.
I also hate to get lost for not the listeners,
but for the viewers.
I got my hat.
Got my Texas Ratio hat.
It's my only decoration in the background now.
So that can be talking any crap on me for not having anything
in the background.
That's all I'm going to say.
Finally, he has something in the background.
I know Kenji doesn't have his full shelf here
to flex on everybody.
But I'm proud of you, Joe, for filling the space a little bit.
It looks good.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm still putting off that Dane Dunning jersey.
And so maybe someday.
Yeah, well, that'll be a place with that.
Yeah, we'll probably all be married and off at that point.
We'll probably have children.
And then you'll be like, guys, guess what?
The Dane Dunning jersey came.
Debatable.
OK, well, so then I guess we can hop into it pretty quickly here.
So the All-Star game was this last week, the Home Run Derby,
as well as the All-Star game.
Vladimir Gareiro Jr. won the Home Run Derby.
Brady's been waiting.
Yeah, for those that are just listening to the podcast forum,
Brady has a Blue Jays hat he's about to put on his head
because he wants to.
That's the only explanation I got.
But the Home Run Derby was super fun.
Me and Brady watched it together.
Joe, you were working that night.
I was working, yeah, sadly.
Yeah, that's a tough one.
But Home Run Derby was great.
Brady, what stood out to you from the Derby,
aside from Vlad Jr. winning the thing?
I think, actually, before you get to that,
I think he's the first father-son duo, he and his dad,
to ever win the Derby together.
Yeah.
I think I saw that stat, so I guess that's what it is.
Sounds about right.
All right, what stood out to you?
What did you like?
I mean, obviously, everyone kind of could
tell that Mookie Betts just was there just to be there.
But he's proper.
Yeah, Mookie didn't even try.
Actually, went crazy.
Went crazy.
And he's been doing well the last couple
of days in their actual games.
But he went off, and it was crazy to watch.
Julio had a great first round up against Julio.
Record-setting first round, yeah.
It was insane.
But he just couldn't handle it when
it got to going up against Vlad.
And Randy Rosarena was quite the show to watch as well.
We obviously thought he was going to pull it out there
at the end with how he spaced it out.
But in the end, Vlad ended up winning.
Yeah, Vlad got it done.
Vlad did his thing.
I mean, I can't say anybody's surprised.
I don't think anybody's surprised with Vlad walking away
with that one.
I am going to shout out my guy.
Before we get to Joe's thoughts on how
Adelise Garcia kind of fumbled, I
am going to shout out my guy, Adley Rutchman, for hitting 27.
Eight of those 27 were from the right side
after he hit 19 or 20 from the left side.
Just stuff we've never seen before at a derby.
And I mean, I'm rocking my O's hat today
for all of our listeners.
We're going to get to the O's in a second.
But loved seeing Adley and his dad out there.
They're a bunch of cool pictures.
So I had to rep my guy for a second.
But Joe, what happened with Adelise, man?
I know.
I'm going to leave it open-ended.
Take it away.
What happened with that, Adelise?
Well, first of all, I didn't even watch it.
So I didn't know exactly what happened.
But all I did know is that Garcia went out
in the first round, obviously.
Who did he play again?
Who did he face?
Oh, Rosarina.
Rosarina.
Yeah.
You know, before the actual derby,
I was thinking he could actually pull it off.
And Adelise B get past the first round and beat Rosarina.
But Rosarina, he was really tough.
He's, like, surprisingly, he was really consistent.
Like, when he needed to, he would get those home runs.
And I think just the consistency.
Like, I'd even watch Garcia and Rosarina face off.
I could just tell, even with Garcia and his overall,
just playing games as a ranger, even in the home run derby,
he lacks consistency a lot.
There's some games where he goes three for five with four
RBI's, and then he goes over 12 in the free game stretch.
And so that might translate into the home run derby,
kind of how he operates.
So yeah, I mean, you see, you saw
Vladiy staying consistent the whole time.
As well as Rosarina, you know, hats off to him
and a few other players.
So I guess, yeah, the home run derby just
came down to consistency.
And Vladiy, like Brady betted on, he's the most consistent.
He was able to get the job done when he needed to.
And also, I watched the highlight of Rutchman
and his dad throwing to him.
That was really cool.
Like, that's something that's never happened before
in derby history.
And I can't even imagine, not even, like,
Rutchman's feeling or Adelie's feeling, but his dad, too.
Just being able to show him something
at the stage, it's kind of just feel incredible.
So it was, yeah, I know, even though I didn't get to watch,
it was still really cool to kind of just look at the highlights
and, yeah, kind of watch back.
Certainly.
Yeah, I mean, so I guess if you didn't watch it,
then you're probably, you should be happy that you didn't.
Because Adelie's, his pitcher turned into Greg Maddux.
He turned into Greg Maddux in that first round.
I had, like, he was just trying to strike him out.
I think we made the joke that our fantasy teams could
use that guy.
I think the Yankees bullpen could use that guy.
But yeah, so he had a bad pitcher, as well as Pete
Alonso.
I love Pete.
I think if he had his regular pitcher,
because they said the night before, his scheduled guy,
like, had a forearm problem.
But if Alonso had his correct pitcher,
then I think his round with Julio was much closer.
But I mean, get the stat cast out on Pete's pitcher,
because I mean, the RPMs on some of those sliders
he was throwing, I'm just kidding.
But the derby was super fun.
I know Brady's probably chomping at the bit.
I know Bryce Harper won the derby with his dad
pitching to him.
So I know that was really cool.
But Adelie's better, 100%.
I'm just kidding.
Brady, you want to defend yourself for your play?
Please, no.
I'm going to.
I know Kenji's not here to defend himself.
But I am going to make fun of his pick, choosing
Mookie Betts, who didn't even try.
He didn't take his time out, didn't go for bonus time.
He just literally hit the ball.
And there was a clip of JD Martinez asking him,
like, mid-round, like, before his 30 second bonus
that everybody got.
JD's like, you need to pull the ball to left.
And Mookie's like, I don't know how.
And so Mookie was first round exit.
I don't think anybody expected him to go too far,
except for Kenji for whatever reason.
That's it for the derby.
And then the Tuesday was the All-Star game.
That was really fun to watch.
I watched the whole game, surprisingly.
That's the first year in some time
where I've been able to watch most of the game.
Anything stand out to you guys, first and foremost?
Brady, Joe, what would you like about the derby?
Obviously, the most unexpected All-Star MVP
of all time, Elias Diaz.
100%, yeah.
Out of nowhere.
I think I said it last time we were on here.
It's literally who hits the home run,
who hits the first home run in the game.
Who the fluff is that guy, yeah.
It could have been Ronald, had it not gotten
robbed by Adolis Garcia.
Yeah, yeah, that first inning, there
was a couple of amazing catches.
That was a fun start.
I will give you props.
Because it was Adolis in right, and then a Rosarina in left.
And on back-to-back hitters, they
made spectacular catches at the wall.
It was unbelievable.
Which was kind of fun to watch to start.
Garrett Cole was just like, ugh.
What are you saying, Joe?
Were they going to be home runs, or were they
just going to hit the wall and going to be a double?
They probably would have been extra bases.
I don't know if they would have gone over.
I know Adolis wouldn't have gone over.
I don't remember Randy's as well as I remember Garcia's.
But also, shout out the boy, Craig Kimbrough,
getting the save.
Yeah.
Me and Brady had a little minor bet going into the game
on what the final score would be.
We do this for almost every sporting event,
where before a big game, we'll send each other a text.
And I'll be like, AL5 and L3, X person gets the save.
And I texted him.
I think it was exactly 5-3.
And I said, Bautista gets the save.
But of course, Bautista gave up the lead
to the eventual MVP, Elias Diaz.
I went into the game, and I knew that there
were so many O's players that somebody was
bound to have a bad night.
And of course, when Cano had a good ending,
and then the very next time that I
know his pitcher pitch was Bautista, first batter,
he walks Castellanos on five pitches
and then hangs a splitter right in the middle of the plate
to Diaz.
And I'm like, OK, cool.
Yeah, that's sure.
But Kimbrough got the save done.
I'm trying to think of a way to get
the win against Diaz.
But Kimbrough got the save done.
I'm trying to think.
Araiz went 2-2.
JD Martinez went 2-2.
Araiz going 2-2 doesn't surprise me at all.
He's just insane.
Anything else you guys want to touch on about the All-Star
game?
It was a pitch off, right, mostly?
Because it wasn't high scoring at all there.
It was 3-2, yeah.
Always makes it so boring.
Yeah.
It's always better when you just have a swing off
and everybody's just hitting, and it's kind of up in the air
about who gets the MVP.
I like pitcher's duels, though.
I'm not going to lie.
I don't mind.
Not for an All-Star game.
How deep did Gallon and Colgo?
One inning.
Every pitcher goes one inning each.
Everybody throws a pitch in.
Yeah.
All right.
But an All-Star game is so much better
when you have a swing off.
Pitcher's duels are fun, but you can see that all
throughout the year.
Sure.
I can see that.
I can agree with that.
But it's tough when you face like nine or 10
different All-Star pitchers one after another.
It's just so tough on hitters.
If you face Gallon three times around, then OK,
maybe you have a chance.
But when you get Gallon and then Col Gray,
overall, it's just kind of gross.
But it was a fun All-Star game.
Seattle looked gorgeous.
I don't know if any of you guys saw anything.
I've never been to Seattle.
Seattle looked gorgeous.
It's fantastic.
Everybody could not stop complimenting the weather.
They were like, it's the middle of July,
and I'm not sweating outside because it's that delightful.
It's fantastic out there.
I would say it will be a lot better.
Seattle will be a lot better if Ohtani would be there.
If Ohtani would be there.
OK.
Throw that in.
Little trade deadline sneak peek.
We'll get to that in a second.
I mean, I think we're in agreement, Joe.
I think Ohtani would look great in a Mariners jersey.
I agree.
Carrying on Ichiro's legacy, too.
So then I guess we'll move to some of our storylines
really quick.
First and foremost, again, Kenji's
not here to defend himself, but his angels suck.
They've lost 11 of their last 13.
They had a fun one last night.
They had a walk off over Houston.
It was like a 13-12 game.
That was kind of crazy.
Joe, you want to speak to that for a second?
Yeah, well, it was a double play.
Runners on, or so the runs on first and second one out.
Guy hits a grounder at a second.
He turns two.
I can't remember who the shortstop was.
It was in Pena.
Maybe just like a substitute.
Yeah, because Pena got hurt earlier.
I think they pulled him.
Yeah, so the shortstop, he got the ball, stepped on second.
And he threw over to first.
And he threw to the right or left of him.
I don't remember.
But it got away from the first baseman.
It hit the wall.
It came back.
But the guy that was on second managed to score.
Yeah.
And so it was 13-12.
What a such a tragic way to end the game.
But at the same time, I can't complain.
Because the Rangers did win that night.
And so now Astros are three games back instead of two
like before.
We have a little bit of the breathing room.
So I'm kind of happy about that.
Go, Angels.
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a fun game to watch.
I didn't even think it was close.
And then I looked.
I got a little notification on a Twitter account that I follow.
It was like, you up?
And it was like a one-run game.
And so I was like, OK, I'll turn it on.
And I watched the Angels walk it off.
And that was enjoyable.
Baseball is better when the Angels are playing good.
They don't play good very often.
But that division is better when they're playing good.
It's better when Ohtani's on a winning team.
But I mean, as long as the Angels keep losing this many
games, I think Ohtani's going to leave.
I hadn't realized how many they had lost.
But we're not going to talk too much about Ohtani
getting traded quite yet.
Then the very next one, for all the listeners,
I had my O's hat on today.
I got a bunch of O's stuff on the ground in the background.
O's have won eight straight as of like an hour ago.
They swept the Miami Marlins, who
have the third best record in the National League.
They do have a tough schedule coming up.
We'll talk about the schedule at the very end of the show.
But O's have won eight straight.
It's their longest winning streak this year.
I think it might be the second longest behind the Rays
when they went like 11, 12 and 0 to start the year.
I remember that was crazy.
So they've been playing fun baseball.
They're starting pitching 13 straight quality starts
from their starters.
And they're just bopping out.
They're averaging eight runs a game over their last week
and a half.
So when starters are pitching good and you're
scoring a bunch, you're going to win a lot of games.
So go birds.
That's all I'm going to say.
I'm going to touch on them.
Now, Joe, this is our resident Rangers check-in every week,
it seems.
Are they picking it up?
How have they been playing?
Are they playing the Guardians?
How are they playing?
So yeah, they played the Guardians first series back
from all-star break.
And the Guardians were up 4-0 until, I think,
fifth or sixth inning.
I was checking the score from time to time.
I think I was at work that day.
But I was like, it's over, man.
There's no way.
Coming back from this, our starting pitching
can't go deep.
Our bullpen can't.
Just keep runners off.
And it was just really bad.
But I checked my phone during work,
and I saw that Seager hit a home run.
Who else?
Was it Adolis?
Garcia hit a home run.
And then Hyde just hit a bomb.
The Rangers came back from a 4-0 deficit to win the game 12-4.
That was really surprising to me.
There are a lot of base hits.
The bottom guys, 7-8-9 guys, really stepped it up.
Jonah Hyme, I think he had a 4 or 5 RBI game.
Adolis had a 4 RBI game.
I believe.
They both had a 3 or 5.
And it was nice.
It was really refreshing seeing the offense just
produce how they were producing in the beginning of the year.
Watch the highlights.
And obviously, yesterday, they barely
won by the skin of their teeth, 2 to 0.
But you know, hey, a win's a win.
Andrew Hiney, he pitched yesterday.
Wow.
But I think five or six shutout innings for him.
I think maybe he's picking it back up.
But I think as of now, we're losing 5 to 2
in the bottom of the eighth.
We got first and second, one out with Nathaniel Lowe.
So we'll see how that goes.
I don't know.
But Rangers, hopefully, they'll be picking up.
We got a really tough schedule.
I don't want to get too much into that,
because we'll be talking about that a little bit
towards the end of the podcast.
But yeah, hopefully, you know, it's kind of a second win.
They pick up that second win.
And yeah, get back to where they were a few months ago.
Yeah.
I mean, when the Rangers are playing good,
they're scoring a lot of runs.
You guys spent so much money on your pitching.
So that's how you're going to win games, is if you can.
I guess that's the name of the game.
You score more runs than the other team.
But you got to score a lot of runs to do that,
especially against the schedule you guys have been up against.
For sure.
So that's our Rangers.
We do apologize to the listeners.
This is like the bias portion of the podcast,
where we just go through our three favorite teams.
Skip ahead a couple of minutes if you're sick and tired of it
already.
The very next one, I guess in the last bias piece of this,
Bryce Harper and the Phillies uptake.
Brady, give us everything we need to know what's going on.
First of all, I believe the Phillies won nine or 10
in a row in June.
OK.
So the Orioles aren't there yet.
OK.
I got news this week that Bryce Harper
will be playing first base sometime this week to start.
Get back out into the field, which
will be huge because then we can finally take Schwaber
and put him in the DH spot because he's
terrible in the outfield.
Yeah.
He's so bad.
Yeah.
So I think and he hits better in the DH role.
He does.
So that's just going to be more than beneficial.
We did just get a call up from AA actually.
The center fielder named Johan Rojas,
who did an incredible catch yesterday.
Got a couple of hits yesterday in our double header
against the Padres.
Padres, yes.
Thank you.
You selected a lot of them.
So they're just getting started.
But we're looking good.
Playing pretty well so far.
Everybody seems to contribute very well.
Yeah.
Player to watch that's been every
for since the beginning of time.
Bryce and Stott's been doing incredible.
Still hitting over 300.
Absolute demon.
You still fleece me in fantasy.
I'm not going to forget that.
A little bit of background.
You've absolutely fleeced.
I was looking, I was going after Bryce and Stott.
And I texted Brady as a resident Phillies analyst.
And I said, hey, is Stott good?
Can I trust Stott to produce for me all year?
And he goes, dude, I love Stott.
He's like, he's so good.
And then I kid you not, an hour later,
I got a notification without hearing back
from the guy I was trying to trade with or from Brady
that Stott just got traded to Brady.
So I was like, Brady, what happened there, my man?
And he just said, you got me interested, dude.
I wanted to get him.
And so I'm never going to forgive you for that.
Don't ever try to trade me again this year.
That's OK.
I like being ready for joining us.
This will be his last episode.
It'll just be me and Jayne this week.
We did kick Tenji off.
Not really.
I'm just kidding.
I've been eyeing him all year.
And it was finally the time.
And I was just on my break.
And so I was like, well, all right.
Yeah, I don't want to hear any more about it.
I'm done.
I'm just kidding.
The Mets and the Padres have continued to slide.
They might be the most disappointing two teams
we've seen that I can remember in terms of off-season spending
and then regular season performance.
They've just been absolutely abysmal.
Blake Snell is the only bright spot on the Padres.
Manny Machado has been red hot on that offense.
Ha Sung Kim has been great, too.
He was my player to watch last week.
And Tatis has always been good.
But I think he's just kind of plateaued
of where his performance has been.
He hasn't gotten super hot or gotten any colder.
The Mets are atrocious.
I can't remember a team I've seen that's played this.
But I guess the Cardinals are pretty disappointing this year,
too.
Yeah, Griffey, if you're listening to this,
that's Brady's older brother.
My heart goes out to you as well as Brady's dad.
My heart goes out to you both because it's been a tough year.
But me and Joe have both been there as fans of teams
that have sucked recently.
Oh, yeah, it's been a few years since I've actually
had hope for my team.
So it's nice to kind of like a team that's
kind of winning games.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, completely agree.
But the Mets have been bad.
I did want to point out last night, quite an unusual play.
There was a sky-high pop-up.
It was Max Muncie was batting against some righty.
I think this video went viral.
Brady probably knows what we're talking about.
I saw it.
Max Muncie comes up with a runner in scoring position.
I think Mookie's on third base.
And he pops it straight up to third, OK?
He pops it straight up to third.
And Brett Beatty, the Mets rookie,
is standing down there trying to catch the pop.
And then there's a stack, as you can see,
on how the ball travels.
It's this really weird pattern.
But what should be a routine pop just
completely gets away from Beatty?
It bounces off the dirt, then bounces off of Beatty's face
as he's laying out trying to catch it.
Mookie comes around and scores.
And then the Queens Mets faithful just
boo like nobody's business on that poor team.
So the Mets are just bad.
I don't even know what the solution is.
They've got too many old guys, not enough prospects.
They're in quite a bit of trouble.
I guess I'm talking quite a bit.
You guys need to talk some more.
And then I guess the only last bit of news
is that the trade deadline is upcoming.
So we've got, I think it's August 1 is the trade deadline.
So we'll do a couple more episodes prior to that.
And we'll delve a little bit further into who
we think is getting traded, why they're getting traded.
These next couple of weeks will be huge determining
factors of who's leading, because teams will decide
if they're buying or selling.
I think the teaser that Joe mentioned,
though, I think Ohtani is kind of the big one.
Do you guys want to touch on that really fast?
I mean, you see the Angels, they kind of have spots,
places in the season, the first half of the season
where they picked it up.
The future kind of looked bright for the Angels.
They might have had a chance with a wild card spot.
But now it's pretty apparent that even with Ohtani or Trout,
they're not going to go too far.
And so the Angels would benefit clearly
by giving Ohtani away for two, three good solid players that
could lift their team.
Just keeping him for no reason.
And so it'll be interesting to see
what happens to Ohtani, because there's a lot of guys,
a lot of teams looking to pick him up.
Like I mentioned, Seattle, they also have,
just like a lot of teams on West Coast, Dodgers, Padres,
and even on the East Coast as well, New York.
Yeah.
So it's going to be interesting to kind of see how it plays out.
I'm excited to see where he goes, honestly,
because that's going to be one of the biggest
updates of the year with baseball.
I don't know.
We've seen a prospect, or not even a prospect,
I don't think we've seen a player with this much hype
around him ever.
He's a golden child of them.
I'll be the judge.
Yeah.
They were saying, I was listening to Intentional Talk,
my guy Kevin Millar.
I have a man crush on Kevin Millar, if you ever watch this.
I love you, Kevin.
I was watching Intentional Talk right before the All-Star game.
And Whit Merrifield was doing a little interview.
And he said Ohtani has this posse that follows him
everywhere.
Like they said, it's like cameraman.
It's fans, followers, even just other players
that are just always trying to get to Ohtani,
try to talk to him, get an autograph.
And it reminded me of, I don't know if you guys remember,
I wasn't old enough when it happened,
but I've only heard stories of how big Michael Jordan was
with the Bulls, that he transcended the sport.
He transcended America.
And that's what I kind of feel like Ohtani's getting to,
to where he's not just transcending baseball.
He's transcending countries.
He's going over to Japan.
I mean, he's just, he's huge.
And I'm curious, you guys think he ends up
on the West Coast or the East Coast?
Well, personally, I do think he would.
So we will stay on the West Coast,
because that's where the league wants to keep him.
I'm not going to get too scientific and statistical,
but that's where a lot of the Asian-Japanese population
is, Seattle, LA.
You should get statistical with us.
Yeah, let's go.
Poland as well.
And so Poland, Seattle, three, four hours apart by car,
whatever.
And being there, I was in Washington for a few months.
I was living there for a little bit.
And you can just tell there's a lot of Asian people there,
especially on the West Coast.
That's where most of them are.
And if you have a population that will always
go and support Ohtani, because that's
how I feel how the Japanese culture is.
Being there for a few years and living there,
they support their Ohtani's literally.
To the Japanese people, he's like a god.
He's like a king.
Everywhere you walk around, in public,
you walk around in airports and malls,
you see all these ads or a billboard
on the side of the road.
Ohtani's sponsored by so many companies, watches,
just clothing brands, maybe Cologne or whatever it may be.
He's always on the face of just these marketing companies.
And so if they're going to support him like that,
surely they're just going to support him on the West Coast,
where the majority of his fans are.
And so I think from a business standpoint,
Ohtani will most likely be kept on the West Coast
unless there's a huge blockbuster trade that
goes on somewhere else.
So that's my opinion about Ohtani.
OK.
I do think it's worth noting that under the current CBA,
you can only negotiate a contract after the season
or if you own the player, sounds bad.
But if the player's under contract for you,
then you can negotiate it.
So I think for a team like the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox,
those East Coast teams that might want a shot at him,
their best chance of getting it might be trading for them
and then negotiating their contract.
Because I think if they were to go into a free agency pitch
and they're going up against the Mariners, the Dodgers,
the Giants.
A lot of money.
We know the Padres will be there.
The Padres somehow will offer money.
We know that they're going to offer up the money.
And I don't know if the Mets have the same kind of pitch
that the Mariners do, just given the history of baseball
in Seattle and Ichiro and the population there,
as you mentioned.
So it'll be really interesting.
I think it's probably the most interesting storyline
of the season to this point for me.
Brady, I'm curious your take on the Ohtani situation.
Well, it's obviously a West Coast idea right there
that we've been talking about.
But I think if he does get traded at the deadline,
it will be to a West Coast team that has some playoff potential,
at least I'd hope for Ohtani's case.
End up like Mike Trout, where you're just
on a team that sucks every year.
And so hopefully he'll choose to go
to a team that has some playoff hope and the team that
gives the prettiest package.
That's the best way I can describe it.
Whatever team gives the prettiest package
is the team that they trade them to.
It could be anybody, for all I know.
Yeah, it might be difficult for Ohtani
to go to Seattle at the trade deadline, that's for sure.
Seattle's been kind of underperforming.
The same with the Padres as well.
It might be difficult for us to see him going somewhere
during the deadline.
It might be until after the season, honestly.
Do you guys think, what do you think the asking price is
for Ohtani?
Do you think, say that you're the Mariners, or the Dodgers,
or somebody, you're calling the Angels.
What do you think the Angels are asking for baseline in return
for a guy of that caliber?
Now what do you think, two, three top 100 prospects, four,
and a couple big leaguers, what do you think it stands?
Yeah, probably I'd say, well, because if you get it
from Seattle, they're not going to have the most lottery picks,
and they're not going to have the most lower end picks either.
They're probably going to be put right in the middle.
It all just depends on if you think
you can get somebody worth it down the line there.
I know.
It just depends.
And then you got, the problem with Ohtani
is the Angels will be losing hitting and pitching.
So you've kind of got to get both.
So I'd say you get some other guys maybe even.
If you have to, you might have to ship out Castillo.
You might have to.
Yeah, you might.
Joe?
When teams like the Mariners or Padres
want a player like Ohtani, they're
obviously going to not want to give up their stars just
to get a star, especially for a guy like Ohtani
who can hit and pitch.
So I think they're going to have to give up
a lot of their prospects.
If for Ohtani, say Seattle, they give up, I don't know.
I don't know about Castillo, maybe like George Kirby
or someone like that, and then someone else
in the field, and maybe just two big leaguers.
And then two or three really solid prospects,
and maybe even more.
Because Ohtani, he's really worth that much.
But at least for the teams, maybe below 500,
that would be the package.
But then for the Dodgers, the Yankees, East Coast teams
that have some prestige, it's apparent
that there's going to be a lot more of those prospects
involved.
And they'll also be willing to give up some stars.
I would be, for a guy like Ohtani,
give up a pitcher or a good hitter.
Because in the end, Ohtani, he's a silent leader.
He's honestly, he was the hope of the Angels this year.
They've been doing pretty well, considering
how they were in the few years past, even with Mike Trout.
And I think that little advantage that Ohtani
had for the Angels, I think that's
going to translate into an even bigger production
for another big team, which will help them win games
and hopefully make a deep postseason run.
So it's going to be interesting.
I don't know how it's going to turn out,
but I'm excited to see how it plays out.
Yeah, I'm interested to see how it ends up too.
I mean, I think personally, I think you've got to give up,
you've got to ask for three top 100 prospects,
and then maybe a big league ready arm.
And I think that's the minimum that the Angels are going
and be like, yeah, we want this, but every team's
offering us this.
What can you do better?
Because not only is Ohtani great on the field
and he gets you a bunch of wins, he takes up effectively
two roster spots for the cost of one.
And both roster spots are actually both all-stars.
What he does is unbelievable.
He's leading the league in homers, I think, with 33.
But he also will give you so much revenue off the field.
As you already mentioned, Joe.
Ad revenue, marketing, these companies are going after him.
I always complain for the all-star fan voting
that the Blue Jays have an unfair advantage
because I have an entire country voting for them.
I think the same can apply here, where whoever gets Ohtani
isn't just going to bolster their city and their fan base
and their team, but they're also going
to gain support of a monstrous chunk of the population.
And even just baseball fans in general,
who just love Ohtani because he's the most ridiculous thing
we've ever seen to grace the field.
But that's enough for Ohtani.
We'll see how that ends up.
You guys know we'll keep you guys posted on that.
So now, the fun part.
I guess we're 30 minutes in, so hopefully it
has already been the fun part.
But the part I'm most excited for are our predictions
for the second half.
So we got a lot of season left.
I believe there's 70-something games left of the season.
I'm curious to know both of you guys.
What you think is going to happen in the second half?
And stick around for a second, because at the very end
of this, everybody's going to give their most ridiculous,
bogus take for the second half.
Clownhorn is ready.
So either one of you, just take the lead on this.
What's going to happen?
What's the second half going to bring?
Joe, I'll let you do the honors.
Are you sure, Brady?
You look like you want to say something.
I do not.
Honestly, it's going to come down.
Obviously, the twins, as of right now,
are winning the division at 505 on their percent wins.
So they're a game above 500.
So honestly, they're not going to do any.
Whoever wins that division is not going to do anything
in the postseason.
It doesn't happen.
You never know.
The twins have great pitching.
Twins have the best ERA in the AL.
With how it lines up, though, they're
going to face some team that has 10-plus wins above them
by the time we're done.
Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you,
but I'm saying you get into a three-game series
like those wild card series turn out to be.
And it's in Minnesota, and you've
got to face Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, and Bailey
Ober in a three-game set.
That's not easy.
And then you have Duran in the back end.
You have Jorge Lopez in the back end.
That's not an easy series if they can scratch a couple runs
across.
Yeah.
That's their problem, though.
They don't score enough runs.
They don't.
Yeah.
I think pitching is the key to winning in the postseason.
And say what you will about the twins.
I think they have.
So it'll be curious to see how the AL Central turns out.
So then what's your prediction for the twins then?
Where were you headed with that?
I was just going to say it's either going to be them right
now or the Guardians that are close.
I do really like the Guardians, actually.
I think the Guardians will eventually take it back
and they'll run away with it.
OK.
Even with Bieber out?
Yeah.
Just because they have the offense that the twins don't.
Guardians got a good pen as well.
Similar pitching.
I'm glad they got Colossus back there.
Yeah.
Certainly.
I think they'll do all right.
Honestly, the National League, the wild card spots
are up for debate right now, honestly, with how it goes.
You got anywhere from Cincinnati, Philly, Arizona,
Miami, San Fran, all are in there.
So you got twice as many teams as there
are spots in the wild card.
It all just depends.
I obviously think the Phillies are going to take Miami's spot.
That's just going to happen.
I'd love to see Arizona.
Arizona would be big time.
That would be so fun to watch them.
That would be huge for the club.
And honestly, after that, I would love to see Cincinnati.
So I would love to have Cincinnati, Arizona, and Philly
all in the wild card spots.
Who wins the division?
Cincinnati would take the division from Milwaukee.
But I don't know.
I think Milwaukee's will still run it.
And either way, I'd like to see both teams in it.
Then you got the two teams from the West
and the two teams from the East, which would be huge.
Obviously, the Braves are probably
one of the most unlikely to catch teams in baseball.
So as a Phillies fan, I'm hoping for the wild card spot.
Rangers are running it really well.
The whole American League is insane.
They got about five guys or five teams
that could run wild card spots, with the exception of maybe,
if they turn it on, Seattle and the Angels,
like we talked about earlier.
Both could turn it on and find their way in the postseason.
But I don't really know if that'll happen.
I do like where we're at right now,
with the Yankees staying out of the postseason.
I love it.
Let me eat it up.
I love it.
I would love to see Boston instead of Houston.
I would.
But I don't see that happening.
I do like it with the Orioles, and especially the Blue Jays
in the wild card.
So then let's hear, Brady, give me your official ideal
or your predicted playoff standing.
So for those listening and not watching,
I guess watching you probably can't tell difference either.
So in the National League, the division leaders
are Atlanta, the Dodgers, and the Milwaukee Brewers.
And then the wild card teams are San Francisco, Miami,
and Arizona.
One game behind Arizona is Philly at one game.
And then Cincinnati is two back.
San Diego is 7 and 1 half back.
So then, if you had to guess the National League,
how it finishes out.
Brady, Joe, both of you guys, let's hear it.
How does it end?
Atlanta wins their division for sure, right?
Atlanta is going to win unless they just really lay
the biggest egg on the planet.
I don't see that happening.
Then the West, the Cardinals, sorry,
thinking of football here, the Diamondbacks
are 2 and 1 half from the Dodgers right now.
I think they could run away with it.
They really could.
I'm going to go with.
The Dodgers?
No, the Diamondbacks.
I'm going to go with it.
I like it.
I think Arizona pulls it out, and LA comes out
of the wild card.
Wow.
We could skip ahead and say that's my hot take
for the rest of the second half.
We could say that's it.
Arizona runs away with the West?
I think they run away with it.
They've lost four straight.
They're young.
They got a lot of talent.
They have a lot of switch hitters on their team.
You could say that about the Giants, too.
Right.
But the Giants are ahead of them.
Yeah, Giants are knocking on the door.
It's baseball.
Nobody knows.
All right, man.
OK.
I would say Arizona takes it.
And then we'll let Milwaukee stay there, I think.
They just, again, they have better pitching
than the Reds do.
Quite and simple.
I think they'll keep that one.
Having that said, my three wild card spots
are Philly, LA Dodgers, and the Cincinnati Reds.
Miami and San Francisco out.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
I knew.
Woo.
Wow.
Logan Webb.
What a fun.
Aside from Logan Webb, their starting pitching
is not great.
Alex Trop is going to be going for strong.
They've won five in a row.
I know.
They put up a four spot in extra innings today.
They did.
I saw that.
They have a plus 39 run differential, San Francisco
does.
I'm just saying, because aside from Logan Webb,
their pitching is inconsistent.
And then you do have to fall out of the pen.
But that's more of a draw.
I like the Giants.
See?
I mean, if I had to predict how it ends up,
I think the divisions stay the exact same.
I don't believe in Cincinnati's pitching,
so I think the divisions stay the same.
I think it's Atlanta, Dodgers, Milwaukee.
And then I think Philly sneaks into the wild card.
I think it's San Francisco, Philly.
And then maybe, I mean, we'll come back to this later
for maybe the crazy takes.
I think San Diego rises from the grave
to beat Arizona, to beat Cincinnati.
Because that's all you got to do is you just
got to pass Cincinnati and Arizona, I guess Miami too.
But I think Giants, Philly's Padres
is my wild card for the national league.
Kind of crazy.
But I'm like, Philly's going to own the Padres.
Oh, OK.
A little sizzle.
It's kind of hot.
A little hot.
And then all I'm saying is the Phillies own the Padres.
Thank you and good night.
They do.
They're probably beating them as we speak.
No, they're not actually.
But we've already at least tied the four game set.
So there you go.
OK, Joe, let's hear some of your predictions.
You want to touch the American League a little bit?
Yeah, sure.
How you feeling about your Rangers?
What's going on?
Anything.
It can be anything.
Let's hear.
Honestly, I'm so just a few minutes ago,
I was talking about how the Rangers are down 5-2 in the eighth.
Rangers came back in 1-6-5.
Oh.
I think we put up a four spot in the bottom of the eighth.
And Will Smith got the save.
He's on my fantasy team.
I had a boy.
The way I think it's relatively consistent,
I think, with the way the AL is going right now,
except for just a few teams.
I kind of want to touch on that.
I'm really conflicted about Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
Ooh.
Like, because Ray started off red hot.
And I'm not just glazing Gabe or whatever.
I watched the O's.
Good pen.
He got good closers.
Good relief.
Your hitters consistent.
You guys, eight straight, one eight straight.
Swept the J's.
And there's a lot of so many positive things
about Baltimore that I can speak about.
Good prospects.
You get just all around just super solid.
And the Rays, I feel like the Rays with McClennahan out,
they're pitching.
They got good pitching.
But sometimes they could scuffle a bit,
as well as they're hitting.
I feel like a lot of their guys are just either on and off.
And at the beginning of the season, they were red hot.
But then they kind of start, they cool down a little bit.
And that's where they're at.
That's kind of where they're at right now, I feel like.
So I don't want to predict anything
for the end of the season.
But it's going to be a dogfight like it is right now.
You guys are only one game back.
Did they lose today?
Tampa.
Tampa lost today?
They might have.
Hold on.
Let's look.
Yeah, eight to four.
Oh my gosh.
We're one game back.
Wow.
We're breathing down their neck.
And they lost to the Royals.
We're breathing down their neck.
We get them this weekend.
We'll see if we can get them this weekend.
Dude, and then just lost by Philly.
Don't forget.
Yeah, man.
All asleep.
Ooh.
Yeah, so there's been a little shake up in the East.
Ooh.
How are you?
I thought the Rays were going to run away with the East.
But I don't know, man.
It's really close.
As for the Central, yeah, like Brady said,
I think the Twins are going to run away with it.
And it's the Central, too.
Let's just say, yeah, it's the AL mid.
AL mid, baby.
Yeah, as for the West, I don't know, man.
Here we go.
I like it.
As for the West, let's talk, Joe.
I like it.
Do you think you hold first place come the
overfiring?
I think we do.
I think we hold it.
Wow.
I agree.
I do.
I agree.
I personally, OK.
So we're still at one with John Gray being really cold right
now.
John Gray, Andrew Hiney, our only solid starter,
I'm going to be honest, is Dane Dunning.
Even Iovolvi.
He does have quality starts.
But you watch his games and his performance,
it's like for Iovolvi, it's kind of subpar.
At the beginning of the season, he was red hot.
Now, he's cooled off a bit.
And even with the fluctuations with our pitching,
and you know how the range is, our starting pitchers
have a really hard time going deep into the game.
And so that leaves our bullpen to cover for their crap.
And then most of the time, we just
end up giving away the lead and losing the game.
And that's if our hitting isn't good.
Also known as really special, by the way.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's just like, honestly.
And I think when one part of the Rangers game,
like whether it be the bullpen or the starting pitching
going a little deeper, the hitters kind of staying
within themselves and stringing bases together
to get more runs in, whether it be any of those things,
that naturally improves every single other aspect of the game.
And I mean, we saw that today with the Rangers.
I think Martin Perez, he went either four or five innings,
and he was taken out.
We obviously didn't have hope.
But our guys, our offense picked it back up,
even though our bullpen didn't do the best job.
And so we can still support each other,
whether or not all the aspects of the game of the Rangers team
is doing well for bat.
So I think hopefully we can stay consistent.
I don't know.
Sorry, what were you going to say?
No, I was just going to mention that.
Oh, wait, who was talking?
Brady?
Go ahead.
No, Brady, you go.
I was just going to say Chapman got his first save on the team.
He did.
Are they splitting save duties, Joe?
Do you know what the deal is?
Right now, they're trying to keep Will Smith
as the main closer.
But in the future, no one knows because I
think Bocho was talking about how he was fine keeping
Smith in the closing spot, which honestly, good for him.
I think he has, I don't know how many saves he has,
but he's missed one or two save opportunities.
Only one or two.
So he's been automatic.
Yeah, he's been good.
I think he just got the save today in the 6-5 game.
So he's really clutch for us.
Chapman as well, he's been solid.
He'll be a really just a good relief
pitcher we can rely on.
So our bullpen has improved so much already from that.
So I think Chapman being a really good addition to the team,
I think we should be able to hold on to that West,
the number one spot in the West.
I'm not going to say that's a hot take.
I think you can.
It's a warm take, I think.
It might be a Luke warm take.
Yeah, Luke warm.
I'm worried about Houston's pitching.
That's what I was going to say.
Because their pitching is, for lack of a better word,
it's just unbelievable.
Turner Brown, Chris Javier, Framberg.
We have Lovaldez.
Even in the game last night that you were talking about,
was it last night when the Astros lost?
Yeah, the walk-off.
Didn't Framberg start that game?
Yeah, he did.
He struck out 13, but he gave up five runs later.
Which is crazy.
And he left with an ankle injury.
Yeah.
Who was interesting.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I think their pitching is pretty good.
But then again, it all depends on who shows up that day.
The thing is, the Rangers pitching
is really good, too, the starting pitching.
John Gray, Yovaldi, my guy Dane Dunning.
Listen.
Hate on the man.
Dane Dunning's fan, yeah.
Come on.
Big Dane Dunning fan over here.
Dane Dunning fans here on the show.
Thank you, Dane Dunning fans.
Dane Dunning, if you're ever listening to this, just,
I love you.
Fly me out to Texas, and let me watch you.
Let Joe throw out the first pitch.
Yeah, let's get Joe to throw out the first pitch at a Rangers
game, too, Dane Dunning.
I'll throw some 90 poo on the mound.
90 poo.
There you go.
Short hops the catcher.
I would throw it to the backstop.
Yeah, let's be honest.
It's the cameraman.
Yeah, it's his balls.
I was in those videos.
I beat that guy.
We're playing hit the bowl.
We're playing bulldurum here, where we hit the ball.
Hit the bowl, OK.
All right, mains.
So then I'm going to touch on it a little bit on how I feel
about what's going on.
I did not believe that Tampa Bay is only a game ahead of us.
Go birds.
Sneak peek to our series to watch at the end of the episode.
The O's go to Tampa at the end of this week.
So I very well could hop on next week's show
and just be demoralized, or I could be happy,
or I could be even keel.
If we split with the Dodgers in race, we go three and three,
then you'll know I'm OK.
But if we go one and five, I'm going
to want to chop something off.
The thing is, the Rays got the Rangers, too.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday.
I know.
They have a tough schedule.
But you guys get McClanahan tomorrow.
You get McClanahan.
We'll get McClanahan on Friday or Saturday.
Yeah.
Saturday.
Mane.
Yeah, it's going to be the Rays.
They're in a tough spot right now.
They got two great teams with great offenses.
Yeah.
It's going to be like I'm just going to say,
those are the series to watch.
Yeah, it's going to be a fun week to watch, man.
So as for the Wild Card and Division
of Leaders for the American League,
I believe the O's to be a Wild Card team.
I like Tampa a little too much.
I think that they're proven.
And I just think the O's are young at this point.
I think the O's can still make a run.
I don't trust their starting pitching
to make a deep postseason run.
And I think that they'll win the one.
They'll be a Wild Card team easily.
But I'm just nervous because I don't think that they.
I don't think they have what it takes to beat Tampa.
And that might be sacrilegious as an O's fan to say that.
But the start Tampa got off to, they're
starting pitching when they're healthy,
how good their bullpen is when they're rested.
It's just too good for me to say that the O's pitchers.
We have 13 straight quality starts.
That's not going to keep up for the rest of the year.
So there are going to be lulls.
And I just, I don't know.
I would love to see it happen.
I just think the O's will finish like three or four
back behind Tampa at the end of the season.
And they'll be a Wild Card team.
And they'll win 95 games or something like that.
I think Texas.
Oh, this is tough on me.
Friendship's on the line.
I like the rain.
I do.
I mean, they have such a good run differential.
I'm going to say Texas wins the West.
I'm doing it.
I'm saying Texas wins the West.
Joe, I love you.
We're still friends.
Love you.
Yeah, we're still friends.
I think Texas wins the West.
I just, I don't think Houston, I don't know,
because your Don's coming back on Tuesday.
Your Don.
Yeah, it's scary to watch Houston when they're healthy.
Yeah.
I'm going to still keep it with Texas because of how good
you've shown you can play.
You just need to beat Houston.
You can't lose three out of four.
You just need to beat Houston, you can't lose three out of four
to Houston next time you're playing.
Yeah, we lost.
You know, just only winning one game was kind of an eye-opener
for me.
It was like, we're done.
That was in Texas too, right?
Or was that in Houston?
In Texas.
Yeah, see, that's the thing.
They're both in Texas.
Just, yeah.
At the Rangers.
You know what, Brady?
I'm going to mute you, OK?
I'm horn.
I think I like Minnesota to win the Central too.
I like their pitching a little too much,
as I've already touched on.
Baltimore is the number one wild card team.
Toronto is going to be a wild card team too.
And then hear me out, another crazy take, Seattle.
Seattle over Houston.
Seattle over Houston is a final wild card spot.
I think they get hot.
They have the pitching to do it.
They have a lineup that can get streaky.
I think Seattle does that there.
What about Boston?
What do you think about Boston?
I hate the P's.
I just don't think they have it in them.
I don't.
They don't have good pitching at all.
Their pitching is just, they have
Kenley Jansen, who's skeptical in the pen.
Yeah, they have Kenley Jansen.
What about Ford Kluber?
He's in the pen now.
Yeah.
Just kidding, I know.
He's getting old.
Yeah, he's getting old, man.
I just, I don't know.
Chris Sale is old.
I don't even think he's back yet, dude.
He's made of glass, dude.
He's made of glass.
Like, they're just scraping for pitching right now.
And if Judge comes back, then I could see the Yankees doing it.
But not in my good conscience can I
pick the Yankees to make the pen.
No, absolutely not.
Even if they were, even if you knew
they were going to make a wild card spot, you can't say it.
Exactly, of course.
Of course you.
That's a crime.
Out of respect for the rest of the league, you can't.
Number one Yankees hater right here.
Yeah.
All of them.
One A is right here.
One Z is right here.
One Z.
I think, so I think it ends, I think
it literally just ends the way it is.
As much as I would love to see the Guardians take
the central, the middle mid.
I think they could run with it and take it away from Minnesota.
But other than that, I think it stays the way it is.
Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
I think Chicago gets high.
I think the White Sox win it.
We're just kidding.
OK, calm down.
I think the Royals.
Royals been high recently.
They beat Tampa today.
That's a Kenji statement right there.
Yeah.
Kenji would be like, I like.
I like watching the Royals, but I like Bobby Witt.
He's like, I like how Detroit's playing lately.
I think I'm going to go with Detroit.
You know, I like token A's.
You know, Fujinami's been picking it up.
Kenji, if you're listening to this, we love you.
We do love you, Kenji.
We miss you right now.
I love it.
OK, well, we are running out of time.
We've talked far too long about the second half and about Bryce
Harper, probably.
But really fast, guys, give me your hot take,
your bogus hot take for the second half.
Bogus hot take.
Most outrageous thing you could think of happening,
like big comeback, somebody gets traded,
like somebody gets injured.
What happens?
Like who wins the World Series?
Belly to the Rangers.
That's what I'm going to say.
Belly to the Rangers.
That's all I'm going to say.
OK.
I love it.
Don't sleep on Arizona.
Trade that line.
Raider says don't sleep on Arizona.
That's your hot take.
They're going to take the LCS.
Coolest take.
Saying they're taking the West is maybe the craziest thing
you've ever said on the show.
Hey, that's what I'm here for.
Got to make up for Kenji's blasphemy.
That's true.
I mean.
You're doing a pretty good job of it, if I can be honest.
That's what we're here for this week.
Yeah, you're filling the shoes pretty good.
Don't sleep on Arizona.
I think they could.
Their pitching, aside from gallon, is mid.
But I mean, all you need is mid pitching to step up
and the lineup that they have, and you can run it.
OK.
And then my bogus take might not be bogus, might be bogus.
The Padres are going to make the NLCS.
I think that they easily get it done.
Padres make the NLCS is my hot take.
So I.
The Phillies own them, though.
So if they're both in the postseason,
the Phillies are running it.
I'm telling you that right now.
I think they make the NLCS, man.
I'm going to be honest.
Hey, if they run it back against the Phillies,
they can make the NLCS all they want.
But the thing is, the Phillies, the Phillies, two months ago,
they still had a negative record.
You're right.
Pads aren't that far away from.
That's two months ago.
Padres are five under 500 and seven and a half
back of a wild card.
But I think Arizona is going to fall off.
I think Cincinnati will like I think
Cincinnati's been on this super high with Ellie.
I think they're going to kind of taper off.
And so I think the Padres, if they
can get good starting, you know those guys can hit,
then I think that they're in a good spot.
They can sneak in.
And yeah, it's like another thing, too.
While they're pitching, well, their pitching does well.
That's when they're hitting does bad.
And with like Darvish, Darvish is a great pitcher.
When he does hot, it's either no decision or he takes the loss.
Yeah.
Because the hitters just can't back.
Well, what's kind of crazy to me is I'm looking,
I'm on the MLB standings right now.
The Padres have a plus 37 run differential,
and they're five games under 500.
Like they're positive, 37.
The Giants, for reference, are positive 39.
And the Giants are nine over 500.
So I think that, like I said, some things go the Padres' way.
I think they're in good shape.
That's my crazy take.
We'll quickly move through our series to watch.
And then boys, get your DFA's ready to go.
Rangers raise this week, as we've already touched on,
in Tampa Bay, right, Joe?
Or is it in?
Oh, no, it's in Texas.
It's in Texas.
Yeah, it's in Texas.
It's in Arlington.
Rangers raise.
A lot of good pitching matchups there.
That's Monday through Wednesday.
Dodgers at O's.
That's also Monday through Wednesday.
Those are going to be some great games as well.
A couple interesting ones.
Giants and Reds, two teams fighting for a wild card spot
they play.
Brewers, Phillies, two teams also contending
for playoff spots.
Phillies need to continue to stay hot to keep up
with the wild card leaders.
As I already mentioned as well, Orioles at Rays this weekend.
That'll be basically if the Rays and the Rangers
play a close series and the Dodgers and O's do too,
then you've got to think that O's, Rays will decide
the division this weekend.
Dodgers, Rangers also this weekend.
Those are some of the big matchups
to look out for, a lot of big division leaders
getting in action.
So yeah, make sure you guys tune into those.
Pay attention to the scores.
And without further ado, the section of the show
everybody loves most, the DFA watch and the players to watch.
So I'm going to kick it to Brady first.
Who's getting DFA'd and who's getting, I guess, promoted?
All right, well, the DFA watch, of course.
I mean, last time I gave you guys a reliever out of the pen,
which I don't think that's changed.
He's still terrible.
But to add somebody new to the mix, Christopher Sanchez.
OK.
He's the left-handed starter.
He's the back end of our rotation.
He's just abysmal.
I swear, he loses every game he plays,
even if we put up seven runs.
He'll still find a way to lose.
Yeah.
He's just bad.
We need to get, I would hope we could just
find a way to trade very little and go
get a half-decent starter to throw in there.
After losing Zach Efflin last year,
which he's on a tear right now.
Got shelled today, though.
And then my player of the year.
I've given the same player, I've talked about the same player
every week.
He actually just hit a home run in the Padres game today.
Bryson Stott.
OK.
I've never heard of Bryson Stott.
Who's that?
Nope, never heard of him.
But he's always there.
But to add somebody new, hey, but definitely new.
We have Johan Rojas, who got picked up from double-A ball.
Yeah.
From double-A ball.
He's been playing really well.
He made his debut yesterday.
So OK.
Word.
Sounds good.
Joe, who you got?
DFA.
I'm going to go with Mitch Garver for the Rangers.
I know I'm just talking about the Rangers the whole time.
But he was going to be the DH this year until Durant stepped
in.
I think Garver had an injury at the beginning of the year.
But he's back.
He's hit like four home runs in the span of I
don't know how many games.
Dude's all right.
He's a big fan.
Why is he getting DFA?
Because we don't really have a place for him on the team.
Because he's a catcher.
But we got Heim, who was an all-star.
And Sandy Leon, who catches John Gray.
And when John Gray does good, that's when Sandy Leon catches,
that's when John Gray does good.
He's like John Gray's catcher.
And so with those two catch Garver,
he's caught probably 10 games, no, five games this season.
His bat is not hot at all.
He gets hot at the worst times when he doesn't need to be hot.
He's cold when the Rangers need him to be hot.
I think he could benefit from getting a few more reps down
at round rock in AAA.
It's not like this dude's awful.
I want him off of my team.
It's nothing like that.
It's just I want him to get more reps.
Because he could be really good.
He could really be bad for us.
He could get really hot.
And so Garver, Mitch Garver is my DFA.
OK, so not as much of a DFA watch,
but maybe like a send-down watch.
Yeah, send-down.
Like a minor league.
Yeah, send-down.
I still love you, but not that much.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Yeah, so it's not like that.
I hate you, but I hate you a little bit.
I got you.
Yeah, I'm going to go with my boy.
I said it again last week.
I'm going to stick to Travis Jankowski, man.
He's been staying solid.
I picked him up in fantasy.
Bros, I watched him play, dude.
Today, he had three hard hit balls, two of them right to like,
I think a pitcher come back that the pitcher caught one of them.
It was just like piping hot.
Groundball, the second base.
And he obviously had a really good single today.
And dude's bat is hot.
He's quick.
He's got a good arm in the outfield.
He doesn't make any errors.
He's such a solid addition to the team.
He's playing over Duran in the field.
Duran's DH-ing, and Jankowski's now playing in left field.
And he's a solid addition to the team.
He's helped, I think, boost our spirits a little bit
when things have been tough, which they have been in the past month.
So I think he's an amazing addition.
I'm honestly, at the beginning of the season, he had an injury.
And before that, I didn't like him at all.
I was like, get this guy off my team.
I hate his hair.
But now it's just like the hair's been growing on me.
And I would love to see more of him in the upcoming games.
OK.
All right.
So yeah.
Got you.
I'll be quick with mine.
My DFA, I like how my O's have been playing.
H straight means we haven't lost since prior to the last episode
that we did.
So I'm keeping the squad.
I'm going to keep the O squad.
So I'm going to go to my favorite team, the New York Yankees.
I'm DFAing Josh Donaldson ASAP.
DFA all of them.
DFA all of them, but Donaldson for sure.
I saw a stat on Yes Network.
I believe it was either right before the All-Star game
or right before the break or since we've come back.
And Donaldson has like 12 hits this year.
10 of them are home runs.
Like he's like, yeah, no.
There was some crazy stat.
There's only like three other players that have ever done
that in the history of the sport.
And he might give you a little bit of pot,
but he's just not hitting at all.
And when he does, he connects.
But it's just some kind of crazy weird inconsistency.
So I'm DFAing Donaldson.
But I had to give you a player to watch.
I'm really curious.
Ryan O'Hearn, Orioles first baseman.
He's kind of been put to a righty platoon,
but he's hitting 310 with a 900 OPS.
And he's been scorching the cover off the wall.
The only player to have a higher hard hit rate in the league
is Aaron Judge.
That's how good he's been.
The only player to have a higher hard hit rate
is Ryan O'Hearn, Kansas City Royals legend, Ryan O'Hearn.
So that's my guy to watch.
I hope he can stay hot.
We're going to face some righties this week.
So that's my quicks.
All right.
Anybody got anything you guys want to end us off with?
We don't have a MILF hat today.
So I'm sorry to let you stuck around for the MILF hat.
I don't love frogs that much.
Vlad Junior for president.
That's all I got.
Vlad Junior for president.
Brady wants a Canadian to be president.
Maybe we'll lead off with that.
Yeah, where's the clown war again?
You can throw that.
But another successful episode, fellas.
Kenji, we miss you, dude.
We'll have him back next week, hopefully.
I hope everybody will be here next week.
Everybody have a great week.
Go watch some good baseball.
We got a lot of good games this week.
Anybody want to send us off?
Go Phillies.
Go Rangers.
Pray for the Rangers.
Pray for the downfall of the Rays as well.
I think me and Gabe, we can.
More than praying for anything, pray for the Rays downfall.
No.
And the Phillies downfall too while we're out here.
Yeah, there you go.
There it is.
Phillies downfall.
There it is.
That's what we need.
All right.
Thank you for listening, guys.
Have a good week.
Thank you.