Is he not?

Uh, I think they were con- seriously debating it.

I think there's some, there were some reasons to have Max Freed go game one, legitimate reasons to have him go game one.

I think, you know, just the possi- but you could still have Cam Schlitter.

If you go have him go game two, he could still go game two and five in the ALDS.

Gives him an extra day of rest.

This is a guy who's pitched four, 40 more innings than he ever has in a professional season.

Uh, what should we expect, if anything, from Aaron Judge, not just in this series, but beyond in the playoffs potentially?

What did you learn?

Yeah, well, Buster, this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart.

Full disclosure, my parents are from Puerto Rico.

A lot of my family still lives there.

Grandmothers, aunts and uncles, cousins.

And my cousin is, as you know, Buster.

Made his debut in 24 with the Cubs.

And that to me is always a good barometer for where things are, you know, because I suspect that, you know, back in the 1950s, 1960s, there probably were those type of that sort of competition all over the place in Puerto Rico.

When it comes to the two teams that were in the ALCS last year in the Jays and Mariners, whose downfall has more surprised you this year?

Uh, the Mariners, uh, just because, you know, the Mariners, it's just, with Cal Riley, what he did last year and that pitching staff, that rotation, you expected so much from them.

Julio Rodriguez, a young star.

They, they, you know, they acquired Brendan Donovan, they bring back Josh Naylor.

I just thought that they were gonna be back in it.

And I, and I thought, you know, last year with the Blue Jays, and I was there in Toronto and it was a, an awesome run- Uh, I just didn't expect George Springer would, to do what he did last year.

I just, th- there was a lot of things going right for the Blue Jays last year, whereas I thought the, the Mariners were kind of like, okay, um, they're a team that's gonna be around for a little bit.

We can never have another MVP in that league if Shohei wins it and Pete Crow-Armstrong doesn't with the season he's having.

one.

They're saying, we'll do whatever is best for baseball, whatever we owners believe is best for baseball.

Now, push comes to shove mid-March.

And, you know, we're closing in on, you know, what should be opening day and an agreement hasn't been made.

And maybe these guys do step up and say they go anti-salary cap.

But for now, it sounds like it's a pretty united front.

Yeah.

What do you think?

What are you seeing?

I think his floor is really high.

I think just given his defense and the makeup, the maturity, he's 21 years old, son of a former big leaguer, George Lombard Sr., who's a Detroit Tigers bench coach, obviously.

I just think that the floor is really high.

And the question is, how high is the ceiling? Because defensively, he's there.

He belongs there.

He's he's he fits right into that clubhouse.

What did you learn?

Yeah.

Gonna give them a B minus.

Um, obviously they get some much needed offensive help 'cause right now this offense is struggling.

Though not technically right now.

They're doing pretty well here against the Cardinals the last couple of innings.

But overall, since June 1st, since the day after Aaron Judge played his last game, this has been one of the worst offenses in baseball.

They're obviously without Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton as well.

[laughs]

What happened to the Mariners this year? Why are they sellers at the deadline?

I don't think they're sellers necessarily, straight sellers.

I think they might be doing a little bit of both.

And it has been a super disappointing season.

Something just seems off with that team.

I can't, you know, I haven't been around them too much this year, but someone who was, you know, this week they were out in Los Angeles and I used to cover the Dodgers and had a couple of people there tell me, you know, something just seems off about them.

And they're obviously very talented.

If you did have to put your best guess, Atlanta, L.A., Milwaukee, elsewhere, maybe Tampa, where do you think the best package is for Detroit to cash in for Scooble?

[laughs]

One or the other, you know? It's, uh, you know, got...

Fan, fans tend to get angry nowadays with, uh, you know, all the rumors and stuff, but, you know, trying to feed the beast.

Um, I mean, at this point of the year, we're just trying to gather as much intel as we can.

Obviously, you know, on the team side, agent side, you know, they wanna share what they wanna share at this point, right? Uh, there are moves that are gonna happen between now and Monday that are just, like, out, out of left field.

When the, the mead for Connelly early deal came out of nowhere, and that was a huge deal.

So based on what I gathered, what I've talked, you know, when talking to people, um, Mason Miller was number one.

Well, what about the more exciting team, the team that's been [laughs] not so good in New York, the Mets? What is the wish list that you see or you see happening or should happen for the Mets to get better, but also, you know, reset here at the trade deadline?

Yeah.

He's trying to bring...

So the rule is that the hitter has to be alert and engaged with the pitcher.

That means making eye contact, looking up with eight seconds left on the pitch clock, right? Yeah.

Jose Caballero realizing that oftentimes, usually, pitchers have the control in this situation.

Pitchers can wait until it's one second left before lifting that leg and going towards the plate to avoid the pitch clock violation, avoid getting the ball called on him.

The hitter usually, you know, they're kind of waiting around.

What do you think?

Jorge, who you got at number two?

I'll be a homer, and I'll pick the New York Yankees here.

Just, I mean, we're talking about teams, you know, the Dodgers have overcome a lot of injuries.

The Yankees don't have Aaron Judge, John Carlos Denton, Trent Grisha, Max Freed, and they're still winning.

They're still the best team in the American League, the best run differential by a whole lot, plus 111 as of right now.

There's only one other team with a plus run differential in the American League.

And, you know, we talk about, You know, the stars that they've had over the years.

All right, Jorge, who you got at number five?

I know they don't have a ton of guys who are on the last year of their contracts, but how, how do you see this shaping up if the Mets can't turn around? They're always a tough team to figure because, you know, when you run like a $300 million payroll, it's, it's not easy to turn around and sell at the deadline if there's even like a 5% chance of, of making a push.

I think they would sell the, at the deadline if there's like a 5% chance, you know, on August 3rd, August 1st, whatever, you know, when they decide to pull the trigger and, and do that.

I think they are gonna push this down to the wire, though, unless it gets really, really ugly here in the next month, month and a half.

So, uh, Francisco Lindor could come back here in the next couple weeks.

Jorge Polanco could come back here soon.

Francisco Alvarez just got back.

This team's just trying to stay within striking distance for now until they get more of their guys.

He seems a little far from Boba Schett right now.

It's a, it's not our year.

Yeah, I think it's sort of like a sliding scale.

But I think for now, they're going to wait till the end because Francisco Lindor, we could see Francisco Lindor here in the next couple of weeks.

Francisco Alvarez just came back less than a month after knee surgery.

He had a torn meniscus, came back less than a month later, a catcher, which is remarkable.

He had a home run last night, Wednesday night against the Cardinals.

Jorge Polanco, disappointing news for the Mets is that he's not going to be a first baseman, basically.

What's your sense of the dynamic now between Steve Cohen and David Stearns? I get asked that question, by the way, by a lot of people around the sport, folks in other front offices.

[canta] O-O-O-O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Desenriquece y tiene valor, pues esta alianza que estamos construyendo.

Para terminar.

Gracias.

Hablamos y nos centramos en el valor de ustedes, los talentos.

Pero hay un valor agregado muy importante en esta alianza, que es la distribución de la señal.

Todos los medios de comunicación estamos logrando nuevas distribuciones.

Nosotros mismos fuimos AM, FM, tele, online y to-- pero ahora con esta alianza, decir que esos espacios correrán también por las plataformas de ESPN.

For those of us who haven't watched much Yankees this year, and I'm in that group, covered the team for a long time but obviously no longer doing that so can you just kind of give us the yankees for dummies right now who's coming into city field and this weekend and it's the broad strokes like seem to be seem like a dominant team have been a dominant team for much of the season but hit some bumps lately do you mind drilling down on that a little for us

Yeah, it comes down to two things with the Yankees, for me at least.

The starting rotation has been elite and is elite, and the top half of the lineup, Is as dangerous as Poland as any, um, you know, as of recording right now, it's Thursday afternoon.

The Yankees are off their third and major league baseball and starter year.

All right.

Cam Schuettler was going to start on Friday at city field opposite, uh, clay homes, the former Yankee closer.

That should be a fun one.

Are you sensing any different urgency there, or is that total fabricated narrative?

[laughs]

Yeah, yeah.

The courage, the courage that took.

And, uh, it's looking good.

The problem is that Mirowsky's basically unhittable.

I mean, he threw 49 pitches at least 100 miles an hour on Wednesday.

The guy has, uh, like, thrown 233 100 mile an hour or better pitches this year.

Yeah.

Do you think that the approach that they went with in the offseason will serve them well once we get this thing underway in a couple of days?

Well, it's twofold.

I, I don't think necessarily that the Yankees set out to run it back.

I think it's just a matter of, you know, circumstances, things happening, the sequencing of the offseason.

We want to get this guy, but he, he wasn't available to us, or the price was too high in a trade, or the price was too high on trade, free agency, so we went to plan B or whatever, and they ended up, quote-unquote, "running it back." Now, what you said, running it back, it's taking that approach during the offseason.

This team is very, very different from the team a year ago that, uh, you know, uh, that they took to opening day a year ago.

Uh, they made -- They overhauled the roster.

Are you confident going into the season in what the Yankees are left with in terms of that bullpen right now?

What were your thoughts on the moves they made? How much better are they now than they were a day ago?

A lot better.

Yeah, uh, in my opinion, obviously not getting a starting pitcher, I think it was a priority for them.

They didn't want to pay the high price for a starting pitcher.

Same thing with the Mets.

Actually, same thing with a few teams out there.

They did not want to pay the exorbitant price, prices for these, uh, you know, top end starting pitchers that were available, whether it was Sandy Alcantara or Zach Gallen, only a couple guys moved.

Are, are the Mets now in position to go on a serious run in October?

Is there a noticeable difference as far as the way he goes about, the way he plays? Or is this who Juan Soto is? There is

a difference.

Everyone's pointing out it sounds trivial, it sounds silly, but the fact is he is not doing the Soto shuffle, right? He's always said it's a feel thing.

But, you know, it's like a chicken or egg thing.

Maybe he's not doing it because he's not feeling right at the plate, or maybe he's just not feeling right with his surroundings.

But we are not seeing that swagger, that, you know, he smiles, he's swagger.

He's looking back and he's staring at the pitcher.

Jorge, has Judge referenced that drop in Game 5 or the Dodgers or that being a motivating factor to his unreal start to the season?