What up, what up, what's going on everybody?
This is another episode for guys and still no clue.
We're going to be a little bit different today.
Just Gabe today, but we're talking the O's winning the AL East, we're talking the Rangers
big series against the Mariners and the Phillies clenched their spot.
So we're going to jump right into it.
A few topics to talk about.
We're going to have some fun today.
Welcome back to the show.
It's been a few weeks.
I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer.
My O's, most of you probably saw my instant reaction on TikTok and Instagram last night.
O's won the AL East for the first time since 2014.
I did a little instant reaction, put that up on social media.
So go check that out if you haven't already.
But yeah, I'm going to come at you guys a little short episode today.
We're just going to talk a little bit more about the O's winning the division.
What's going on in the rest of the playoff field, the teams that have clenched the weekend
that's coming up and essentially what to look for in the playoffs.
So I do miss my buddies.
They're all out working right now.
So I had a little bit of free time, decided I want to record about the O's.
So I'm going to try and do them justice, talk about their teams in fairness.
But outside of that, that's kind of what we're looking at today.
Just doing a solo pod.
Never done one of these before, so bear with me.
But here we are.
I'm rocking my O's hat.
I got my Drake shirt on.
But we're here.
We're going to have some fun.
I mean, without further ado, if we jump straight into things, the O's, when they're in the
American League East, first time in nine years, they haven't won 100 games since like 1980.
They won 100 games last night as well.
Without boring you guys too much about the O's lore and being an O's fan, it's been
a long time coming.
It's been a long, long, long time coming to be an O's fan.
110 losses two seasons ago in 2021 and now 100 wins two years later in 2023.
So it's been an amazing season.
The young guys have come up and made an immediate impact.
The thing I've probably been most impressed with is the pitching.
Going into the season, the biggest concern was are the O's going to be able to pitch?
Are they going to be able to manage the arms?
Are they going to be able to stay healthy?
Because in years past, the biggest problem has always been dealing with Ennings Limits
and ERA.
Guys like Dean Kramer, guys like Tyler Wells, John Means, Grayson Rodriguez got his call
up this year.
A lot of starting pitchers made huge strides forward that weren't really projected to
do that.
I think it was nice because Dean Kramer, all sorts of quotes came out about the celebration
last night.
Dean went up to the microphone last night and had some reporters at the dugout celebration
and Dean said, well, it's like, I don't think people expected it to be this soon, but we're
here.
And I think that that probably accurately describes what's going on with the O's this
year.
Nobody really expected it to happen like this, but they're here.
And they're the number one seed.
They're going to the home field through the American League runs through Camden Yards.
So I think it's going to be interesting.
We're going to talk a little bit about the starting pitching.
We're going to talk about the hitting and the young guys as well as the outlook for
the playoffs.
So yeah, to finish wrapping up pitching, obviously Felix Bautista was a huge part of the team
most of this year.
Led the American League in saves, I believe up until class A passed and then after he
got hurt.
Elite ERA, elite stuff.
You're talking triple digits and a wipeout splitter.
And Felix was the guy.
I mean, when he went down, I still remember when he went down, it did not look good against
the Rockies at home.
And it was a game that like the O's had wrapped up pretty easily.
But for whatever reason, they still they try.
Felix goes back out there because it's a safe situation.
And he comes up, it's like a one, two count final batter of the game.
And he just throws a fastball, it's up and away outside and immediately like comes down
and looks at his arm and I'm like, oh no, what is this?
And then you hear a post game.
They're like, oh, it's a forearm problem.
And when you hear a forearm in baseball, for most of you, they don't know you when you
hear a forearm, it's usually Tommy John or some sort of elbow injury.
Like there's a ligament problem in your elbow.
But that wasn't the case.
Oh, hold on.
Let me let me explain.
It was the case because it was a forearm problem.
It was a UCL sprain or injury of some degree.
It was all that they told us.
But Felix has been thrown.
He's been out there at Camden Yards.
He's thrown bullpen, simulated games in full uniform.
Full get up.
He hasn't had TJ yet.
So I'm optimistic.
The O's play again later today.
But you kind of got to get Felix in some game action before you throw him in a playoff series,
in my opinion.
But if they want to try it, I'm kind of for it.
He was that dominant.
So we'll see if he gets activated here these next few days and if they can get him in a
game before the playoffs.
But Cano stepped into that role.
Steele, Nopera stepped into that role, DL Hall stepped up.
And then last night, Tyler Wells got the save.
So kind of an interesting story.
What the Tyler Wells experience has been in Birdland.
He had an amazing first half.
Maybe the O's best starter in the first half of the season.
Rodriguez really struggled.
He got sent down.
Bradish had an injury problem the first few weeks.
And so he was kind of coming back from that.
But Tyler Wells consistently five, six innings, no runs, one run.
And just like slammed the door for those first five, six innings of the game.
Like he was just, he was nails.
And he got some fatigue.
He had never thrown this many innings before in his career.
So they sent him down to AAA about right after the All-Star break.
And we hadn't heard much from him since.
He was thrown sporadically in the minor leagues.
He never really quite got anything going.
Like he was allowing runs left and right.
He was walking guys, not really getting strikeouts, VELOs down.
So the rumor was that he wasn't really going to come up.
But on this pass, the O's had a 17-day stretch where they did not have an off day.
So they played 17 games in 17 days.
And towards the end of that 17-game stretch, the bullpen is just, you can imagine, in shambles.
They don't have an off day.
Everybody's throwing every day.
They're in shambles.
And to rectify that, Mike Bauman got sent down and Wells got called up.
And there were no statistical proof in the minor leagues that Wells should have earned
a call up, aside from how he performed to start the year.
But sure enough, he comes right up and then they start putting him in in these high-levee
roles.
The last two games, he's closed.
Just put him in in the ninth.
And he's been nails.
He looks great.
And with Felix out, you want a guy that's like that.
And Wells is not going to be a starter for us in the playoffs.
But if he can lock down the ninth and be that guy, I'm all for it.
He's a big dude.
He's got a 6'7", 6'8", he's like 250.
He's got a whole bunch of mass on him.
He can throw hard.
He's got really good command of his change up fastball.
And that's what you want in the closer.
Kanoa always worries me because he is a high bat-bip guy, batting average on balls and
play.
And he's always, since he had that amazing stretch when he first came up, Kanoa has always
had trouble maintaining that kind of elite stature.
He was an all-star.
He's a great reliever.
Don't get me wrong.
But he just makes me nervous because it just seems like a lot of teams get these funky
little awkward easy hits that always seem to work out for them.
So I'm glad to see him in the setup role again.
Cieno Perez has turned it around.
He's been nails.
And I really love Tyler Wells in the closing spot.
So it'll be interesting to see how they play it going forward.
But yeah, that is my take on the O's pitching staff to this point.
So 100 wins.
I'm moving to the hitters really quickly.
I'm going to take a deep breath because I have been spouting here about the O's.
I'm not usually this kind of spouter, but this is my show.
So I'm doing it solo.
Whatever, right?
But that being said, the hitting probably has been the biggest difference on the stat.
There's so many things that you can point to and say that that was why the O's have
been in the spot that they're in.
They're scoring about a run more a game.
They're pitching to like one or two runs less a game.
All things that contribute to 100 wins and a division title.
But that being said, the hitting has been the biggest key.
Gunnar Henderson had a horrendous April and May, but he's turned it around.
He's hitting like 270 now on the season, approaching 30 homers.
He is the spark plug.
I will stand by this.
Adley Rutchman is the leader of the team, but Gunnar Henderson is the best player on
the team.
I think that goes without saying.
He has been the spark plug.
He has been the electricity that the team needs.
Adley is the captain.
He's the leader.
He leads the pitching staff.
He's the catcher.
But Gunnar just flashes of elite talent all over the place.
And Santander has had a great year.
He's approaching 30 homers too.
He's a great switch hitter.
He just sits in that three hole and performs day in and day out.
Aaron Hicks was a nice little pickup after the deadline when Mullens got hurt.
Poor Yankee fans.
That's all I got to say.
Jaden, Ben, you're probably not listening to this, but I hate the Yankees.
And Aaron Hicks was celebrating with the O's last night rather than the Yankees because
the Yankees will be on the couches coming to playoffs.
Cedric Mullens, a little bit of a down year.
I'm going to be really honest.
Down year for Cedric.
He had his 30-30 year in 2021 and then had a decent year last year.
Pretty big step down this year.
He battled a couple of different injuries and just hasn't quite been able to get healthy.
He started against lefties all the time in 2021.
Hasn't really started against lefties this year.
He took the seat last night against Chris Selle.
He's a great defender still.
Don't get me wrong.
But not a very good bat this season.
Just not a reliable one.
The outfield is loaded with talent.
They got so many young guys that I'll get into.
And so if you just can't hit lefties or you're not consistent, they're going to pull you
out of the lineup.
And it sucks because I love Mullens.
He's super fun to watch.
But if he can't hit consistently, you're not going to play.
Austin Hayes, great season.
First half All-Star.
Elite arm, great defender out in left field, especially with that Mount Baltimore out there.
But I might be in the minority here.
I'm not in on Austin Hayes.
I like him, but I'd like to see some of the other younger guys get more play out there.
I like Kerstad a lot.
I love Kauser.
Kauser is still just chilling in the minor leagues.
Kerstad got his call up.
He's got elite power, but I'm just not as big a fan of Hayes because he doesn't hit
righties very well.
And even when they put him in against the lefty, he still doesn't really have a whole
lot of promise.
But Westburg's been great over there at second base.
Mateo had a horrendous stretch during the season.
If you listen to the show regularly, you know how much I can't stand Mateo for those few
months.
But he's hitting 290 in September.
I'm just going to say, he's hitting 290 in September.
If he gets hot in the playoffs, watch out.
And of course, Gunnar Henderson, Rutchman.
James McCann has been an elite backstop as well as that pitching staff.
So they've been amazing.
Those are my guys.
They've won two O's, first division title in nine years and winning 100 games for the
first time in 43.
So I think it's an amazing achievement.
I was at the clincher last time in 2014.
That was when I lived in Maryland at the time.
Like it was right when I was getting on my Orioles kick that would lead me to years of
despair and turmoil losing 100 games after 100 games.
But times are good in Birdland.
Times are amazing in Birdland.
I can't really think of a better time to be an O's fan, a sports fan in general, let's
be honest.
End of September, going into October, you get playoff baseball, college football, NFL,
NBA is about to kick off or tip off, I guess.
Amazing time to be sports fans.
So yeah, that's my coverage on the O's.
You'll probably hear more from me throughout the playoffs.
I'll get into the bracket and kind of what I think is going to happen here coming up.
But quickly to Brady's credit, to Brady and Joe, sorry Kenji, we'll get Kenji out of the
way.
Angels are out.
Kenji's fandom is done now that Otani's cleared out his locker.
He's gone wherever Otani goes.
You guys can expect to hear a full story about that, but Kenji's kind of done with baseball.
He's on our football show every week.
We love having him on the football show.
He loves it way more and it's honestly far more enjoyable to talk football with him because
he's not constantly depressed about how bad the Angels are being.
But that's my Kenji update.
The Rangers have put themselves in a pretty good spot.
They are leading the ALS by I believe three games, two and a half, three games over Houston.
The Rangers only need to win the rest of the way.
So they have three games the rest of the way.
Only need to win one of the three to win their division and clinch a playoff first.
So pretty interesting there.
They lost last night in a heartbreaker to Seattle.
Seattle is like kicking and screaming with everything they have because Seattle is essentially
a loss away from being eliminated.
They had a huge series during the week against Houston in Seattle.
They were separated by about half a game going into the series.
In Seattle, Seattle drops two of three.
So then Houston left the series now a game and a half without anything.
Seattle couldn't do anything to make Houston lose anymore.
So now they need a lot of help.
But they're playing Texas.
And if I'm not mistaken, a sweep of Texas for Seattle would lead into Seattle winning
the division unless Houston continues to play really well.
But that's what they need to have happen.
They essentially need to sweep Texas and hope they get help from Houston in order to make
things happen.
But Texas probably isn't going to let that happen because they also need to win too in
order to get into the playoffs.
So essentially, Texas is magic numbers down to one.
All they need is a win to advance.
Seattle needs to win out basically to advance.
So it's a really interesting series going on in Texas.
Close game last night.
Texas had it down, I believe, to the ninth with the lead.
But Chapman came in and blew it.
So we'll save you guys the depression of Joe complaining about Chapman coming in and blowing
the lead again.
That is my biggest concern with Texas in the playoffs.
As an O's fan, I would not mind to play Texas.
They can hit.
But pitching in the playoffs is usually the king.
So hitters kind of get stifled a little bit.
It's about those bullpens.
And I think the O's have a better bullpen than the Rangers.
I'm going to be really honest.
The Phillies.
Philadelphia.
They clinched a berth.
They made it.
So Atlanta's been clenched for a long time now.
Atlanta clenched the home field throughout the entire postseason last night.
But Philly clenched earlier this week with a walk off win over Pittsburgh.
That was an electric win.
I encourage you all to go look at the highlights from that game.
I'm sure Brady will be sitting here telling you guys all about how amazing it was to watch.
But Phillies in the playoffs.
I think it's great for the sport.
Philadelphia always brings an amazing crowd.
The Phillies are a great team and they showed that they can get to the postseason.
They showed that they can excel in the postseason like last year.
Their pitchers somehow put it together in the postseason last year.
Their bullpen held it together.
And that's kind of where they're at.
They're on the verge.
They're going to get a series with likely Arizona in Philly to start the playoffs next
week.
And I like Philly at home.
But then the winner of that series will go to Atlanta.
And that's not going to be easy either.
That's going to be real tough.
So I really like Phillies chances because they always kind of have that puncher's chance
with the lineup that they have.
And those fans, those guys in Philly, they'll just electrify everybody.
But I think they're in an interesting spot because they get relatively an easy team that
first round.
But then they got to go to Atlanta.
And I believe it's Milwaukee.
And then probably the Cubs will play in a matchup between the three and six seed.
And then the winner of that will go to play the Dodgers.
So playoffs aren't easy by any means.
Phillies have a particularly tough road.
I know.
Yeah, I think Brady would sit here and he's going to tell you they're going to win the
World Series.
This is probably a good time.
We can jump into the bracket and we're going to go talk the Major League Baseball bracket
for the playoffs.
I'm going to pull it up.
But yeah, this is raw.
This is real here on the Gabe and Kenji show.
We're going to do the playoffs schedule right here.
Hope you're all having a great day, by the way.
I know I didn't really sleep great last night after the O's won.
I wish I was out there in Baltimore.
I would have gone out and party with the team or something.
Find out where to go.
All right.
So Tuesday, October 3rd.
This is what we're talking.
We got teams already filed in here.
As it stands today, Houston and Minnesota will play in the wild card round with the
winner playing the Rangers.
Toronto and Tampa Bay will play in the wild card round, the winner playing the O's.
Miami and Milwaukee will play in the wild card round with the winner facing the Dodgers.
And Arizona and Philly will play with the winner facing the Braves.
So I think this is really interesting.
I am a huge fan of October postseason baseball.
It's kind of strange because you play 162 games.
You have this full season.
In order to win the World Series, you just have to win 13 games.
That's it.
It's relatively small sample size compared to the rest of it.
Like the NFL playoffs go about two months and the NBA playoffs, I swear, take four
months.
So it's quite a while, but it's always fun.
I'll go match up by match up here along with what can happen the rest of the way on some
of these tiebreakers.
Like who can sneak in?
Who could?
Arizona, I mean, not Arizona.
Houston and Minnesota.
Houston is going to win this series.
Excuse me.
I think Minnesota is a good team.
They have a great pitching staff.
Houston's battle tested and proven.
I'm going to take Houston here.
Excuse me, man.
Food coming up.
And then Toronto and Tampa Bay, they're going to play each other.
Tampa Bay should win this series in my opinion, although I will be rooting for Toronto.
The O's went 10 and three against Toronto during the regular season and eight and five
against Tampa Bay during the regular season.
So my prediction is that Tampa Bay should win the series, but I'm going to be rooting
for Toronto.
So that aside, Miami and Milwaukee.
I'm going to stick with Milwaukee here.
I love their pitching staff.
I think they can actually make a deep run.
I think they could beat the Dodgers in the next round.
Sorry.
I have some, I have a friend of mine who's a close Marlins fan.
I don't think they're going that far.
Sorry if you're listening to this, Alex, that's directed at you.
Arizona and Philly, as I said before, Philly is going to win this series.
They have the pedigree to do it.
They have the pitching staff to do it.
Philly will win that series.
And then based on what I just said, I'm going to have Houston playing Texas, Tampa Bay playing
Baltimore, Milwaukee playing Los Angeles and Philly playing Atlanta.
And given all of those, Texas beats Houston.
I'm just going to give you my gut reaction for the rest of these series on the rest of
the way.
They're going to make a deeper and deeper into the series as they come across in October.
But Houston and Texas, Texas wins.
Tampa Bay over Baltimore, Baltimore wins.
Milwaukee over the Dodgers, Milwaukee wins and Atlanta, Philly, Atlanta wins.
So and then moving along really fast here, Texas and Baltimore.
I'm going to take the O's.
That's my bias coming in.
And then Milwaukee and Atlanta.
I'm going to Atlanta.
I think those are the two number one seats.
It might sound a little cliche, like Milwaukee makes it close, but I'm going to have the
O's and Atlanta in the World Series.
And I'm going to save you guys my World Series prediction because you already know who I'm
picking.
I'm not even going to delve into that because you already know who I'm going to pick to
win.
That being said, playoff schedule.
This is going to be a really fun week because you get four games essentially each day of
this wild card series because they all play three straight days, all at home sites.
So game one of all of them, Tuesday, October 3rd, the times haven't been set yet, but they
know all the home sites.
So it's going to be NL Wild Card 2 at Philadelphia, AL Wild Card 2 at Tampa Bay, Milwaukee and
then Minnesota all host games as well.
So four games at Philly, at Tampa Bay, at Milwaukee, at Minnesota all Tuesday, all Wednesday,
all Thursday.
And then Saturday, looks like Friday's an off day, Saturday, October 7th is when the
Division Series start.
So you're going to get Atlantis playing, the Dodgers are playing, the O's are playing.
And of course, the winner of the AL West will also be there.
So that could be Texas, that could be Houston, that could be Seattle.
Nobody knows.
And so that's going to be the start of the real fun.
I will be a nervous wreck on October 7th, so pray for me.
It's a week from tomorrow when I'm recording this.
But that is what I think is going to, that's the schedule.
That's your brief synopsis of what I think is going to happen in the postseason.
I'm going to delve a little bit into it deeper with my guys when they're around.
But I knew I had to get something out to all my fans, all four of you, all four of my TikTok
listeners, my mom, my girlfriend, whoever's listening to this, I had to get something
out.
Had to.
Those are my guys that won that division last night.
And yeah, that's, that's, that's I think all I have for you.
I don't want to make this too long, too long winded, but, um, Oh, is I got to make it a
deep play out front.
I will be a nervous wreck.
Uh, go Phillies.
I love to see a Phillies O's World Series.
That would tear my friendship with Brady apart.
He would probably never talk to me again.
Um, but that's a bit, that's the, that's the update.
So thanks for listening to four guys and still no clue, but really only one guy today.
Just Gabe.
I'm going to get the rest of the guys on here soon and we're going to come at you with an
update on everything that's going on.
All these, the fans of these different teams, we're going to talk about it.
Uh, we'll see if we can get Kenji back on, but he's not that big of a fan.
So I'm going to, I'm going to get him to watch playoff.
So I promise you that, uh, that being said, you'll have a wonderful weekend.
Have a wonderful week.
We'll come at you guys soon and I'll get you some more playoff coverage.
So everybody take care.