Yes

... you know, a couple years remo- from losing 121 games and they made the playoffs.

Um, you know, the, the swing and miss was a problem for them.

That was a team that struck out a lot.

Montgomery, I believe, maybe set the record for strikeouts or certainly led the league.

Um, you know, Murakami, as great as he's been, uh, was prone to strike outs at times.

So, um, you know, that was going to be the Achilles heel for that team, and Cleveland had some guys on the mound.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, they, they...

You know, I, I wonder with the Phillies, having the way the season ended and then finally getting that win on the last day to get in, does that just clean the slate for them and take the pressure off where, uh, you know, the pressure would've been there regardless, but at least this way they don't have to think about, "Oh my God, if we lose tomorrow, we're done." Well, at least not, not tomorrow they don't have to worry about it.

Wednesday they might have to.

Uh, but I think, you know, the Phillies are a good team, but they're playing the Braves, who, you know, were nine and four against them this year and, and handled them pretty well all year.

So I don't love the Phillies in that series.

Now, you've got Christopher Sanchez and Zach Wheeler.

Yeah.

Yeah, it could.

Right? I mean, we've seen this with hitters over the years.

I, I know that, you know, every hitter goes through slumps, right? We've seen, uh, Hall of Fame hitters go through, you know, 0 for 32.

Like, I watched Derek Jeter do it in New York when I was covering the Yankees, uh, getting booed at Yankee Stadium, which seemed like a completely foreign concept.

Um, but sometimes it's that one swing, that one, you just sort of, it clicks, it feels good, and you're, "Oh, there it is." Um, I'm sure there have been some start and stop seasons where Vladi felt like, "Okay, I'm finding it." Uh, but it just hasn't- Uh, been able to manifest itself into any sort of a lengthy hot streak.

Um, you know, he's hitting the ball hard, but he's just not, he's just not doing the damage he usually does.

So, you know, with a guy with his track record, it- it's impossible to write him off, right? I mean, he's, he's 27 years old.

No

Yeah

... market, a smaller market where there isn't quite the same spotlight, even though the Rays have the best record in the American League.

Um, maybe that, the price, you know, they've traded away three of their bottom level prospects in their top 30.

You know, I think it was number 16, 26 and 27.

So it wasn't like they had to give up a ton for him.

The rental prices have not nearly been, uh, as bad as everybody thought they would be.

All I've heard for weeks is everybody's prices are insane and, uh, the, the sellers know that they have the upper hand, so they're not coming down.

Yeah

[laughs]

...

these are usually, you know, you know, they're All-Star players, they're usually names, and they're going out there and just trying to hit big, giant home runs to keep the crowd entertained, right? A- and, and now granted, we don't usually see the hometown player in the finals, and certainly you don't usually see this event happen in a town like Philadelphia.

That crowd lived up to its reputation last night, and, uh, I think it affected Willson Contreras in the second round when he faced Schwarber.

Um, and I give a lot of credit to Jordan Walker [laughs] because by the finals, you know, Schwarber went out there and he hit first in the finals, and he hit 11.

And the way the new format this year, you got 20 swings.

So for me, if you're going double digits in that, you've had a good round.

Yeah

What do you make of the Mets?

Yeah, I think the Mets are, um, a bit of a disaster.

Uh, this season has gone terribly for them.

You know, I think the worst thing that happened to David Stearns and the Mets was making that NLCS run in 2024 because he took over that year with the idea of sort of getting a feel for the team and- and starting to build something there.

And instead they had this late season run, and they got to the NLCS, and now all of a sudden it was, "Oh, they better win the World Series next year." Uh, and they signed Soto, and then they had a...

Obviously, this was a very eventful winter for the Mets.

Stearns got rid of some of the fan favorites.

That's right

Yes

... from Japan, was supposed to be a big free agent.

He's, you know, big power guy, home run records in Japan, and, um, but there was a lot of swing and miss.

There were a lot of questions about whether he could translate to big league pitching.

And while you've seen a lot of these Japanese free agents come over here with these big 9 milli- uh, nine-figure contracts, Murakami wasn't getting that offer, and the White Sox signed him to a two-year deal, I think for about $34 million.

And all he's doing right now is leading the majors in home runs, or leading the American League in home runs, uh, and pacing a White Sox offense that's got some other young guys who are playing very well.

Colson Montgomery's a 24-year-old.

Yes

Yeah

... were 19 and 31 through 50, and they won the World Series, so things can turn around.

But, you know, like Yogi used to say, "It's getting late early here." So, um, I, I think, you know, there are certainly...

I don't like to make big, big judgments off the early parts, but I was talking to some executives last week for a story, and they said you can see pockets of, of play during the first 20, 30 games that tell you what your problems are.

You, the, some of the things that are, um, not working, you say, "All right.

The back of the baseball card, they'll all even out.

A guy who's hitting 150 who's a career 280 hitter isn't gonna hit 150 for the whole year, uh, un- as long as he's healthy, you know, in all likelihood," right? So you're not gonna worry about that.

[laughs]

[laughs]

... uh, that says something.

And, you know, Pittsburgh's an interesting team.

I've heard a lot of people talk about them as they could be sort of the, the sexy pick of, uh, you know, for those who wanna think outside the box.

I'm not sure they're gonna be ready to make the playoffs this year.

But I will say that when they go out and, you know, they signed, uh, Ryan O'Hearn, who was an all-star last year at first base, and they signed, uh, they traded for Brandon Lau, they're actually bringing in some people who can hit the baseball, which is what they have not had in many, many years.

And I think, I think Ben Charington and, and ownership understand you are on a clock.

[laughs]

Yeah, yeah.

If you, if you have a guy who is under control for two more years under reasonable arbitration prices, uh, that's gonna bring you back some, some pretty good prospects, I think.

So I, I...

Gore is the one player that I've heard more than anybody else when I talk to people and say, "Who do you think is definitely getting traded?" Gore is the first name out of everybody's mouth.

So I, I think McKenzie Gore will be moved.

Abrams, I don't know that he'll be moved this off-season because he has three years of control left, so there's a little less urgency.

Um, but that said, Bo Bichette's the only shortstop worth his salt on the free agent market this year.

Yeah.

Yeah, you definitely-

I mean, as I'm watching it, they kept threatening and, and he kept getting the big outs he needed.

And, and then the Blue Jays would come up against some, you know, Dodger pitcher I had never heard of or, or who certainly you wouldn't have thought would be the one who was going to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out, uh, with, with two men on base, or, um, you know, I mean, Braden Fisher and, and, uh, you know, went out there and gave them an inning and a third scoreless.

Uh, you know, the, the bullpens were, were just spectacular, and these areas out of the bullpens were not supposed to be the guys who were gonna be the strength of this team.

We've been talking all, all series and all postseason, you gotta get to the bullpen for these two teams and then you got a chance.

Well, you know, these two teams went 10 scoreless innings before Freddie Freeman finally ended the game.

Yeah.

But he had two doubles and two home runs in the first four at bats, so yeah, look, I, uh, I said this last time, I'm running out of words to describe what I watch with Ohtani.

Right.

And he's showed why he's won two Cy Young Awards.

Uh, Tyler Glasnow has always been a guy who has all the stuff in the world and everybody said, "God, he's so talented, but he's never thrown more than 130 innings." Well, they don't need more than 130 innings right now.

They need, you know, one more start from him, basically.

And when you look at their rotation and the fact that they are all healthy right now, this isn't a surprise.

The only question was, will they be healthy? Right now they are, and if they're healthy and they're pitching the way they're pitching, I don't care who wins game seven tonight.

I have a hard time believing anybody's gonna beat the Dodgers in the World Series.

So-

Yeah.

Uh, because even, even 10 days ago, the Tigers had like a seven-game lead and then, you know, they went one and nine, Cleveland went nine and one, and all of a sudden they were tied and you're like, "Wait, what? Cleveland's tied for first place?" Uh, it wasn't even in my, in my consciousness that that was a possibility 'cause Detroit was ahead by so much all season long.

And even though we knew the Tigers were not playing particularly well in the second half, like I said, on September 15th, they were still up by seven, eight, nine games.

So, uh, this has been an astounding collapse on their part.

It's a little surprising to me, not because I think the Tigers are that good, but I do think AJ Hinch is that good, uh, in terms of being one of the best managers in the game and to see his team suffer this kind of collapse was, was really surprising for me.

Um, you know, I think, uh, for all the talk about, you know, the expanded playoffs has taken away all the drama, we're going into a final weekend here where-

Yeah.

...

Oh.

Uh, and so I have actually been, uh, starting to slave over numbers and, and I- I'm a big believer in talking to the people who play and manage the game when it comes to my award votes because I can watch everything I can watch from the press box or from my, my house and I can watch every game and every at-bat and every pitch, but I'm not on the field doing it against these guys and so I like to talk to players.

Uh, I've been at three games in the last week and I've talked to a handful of players and said, "Make your case for Kyle Schwarber to win the MVP over Ohtani," and every one of them has sort of said, "Man, Schwarbs is having an incredible year.

He's definitely the Phillies MVP," this and that, blah, blah, blah, but he's not the MVP.

Ohtani's the MVP and it's not even, it's not even much of a discussion.

Um, and, and it's not only that Ohtani pitches because obviously when you have a guy who's, um, you know, one of the top offensive players in the game...

Oh, and by the way, uh, you know, he's thrown 30-something innings for, for the Dodgers and, and, uh, while he's not necessarily pitching as well as he has in the past, he's still pitching at least to a league average, uh, right now.

That's right.

But the Mets appear to be getting hot at the right time, right? They appear to be.

Yeah.

You know, and, and it's funny because just, you know, a couple weeks ago, I was talking to people and said, "Oh, the Mets are probably gonna need this and this and this and this at the deadline." And, you know, all of a sudden the Mets are looking at their roster and it's like, "Hmm, they don't really need that much." You know, maybe a, a bullpen piece or two.

You know, if the right starter is there, perhaps there's a, uh, a world where they trade for, where they trade for a starting pitcher.

But, um, you know, the Mets are, are a pretty well-rounded team, uh, overall.

And I think there's not a whole lot for them to do.

Uh, you know, they're still, they're still battling the Phillies.

Yeah.

I agree.

Yeah, I think, I think the Orioles...

And that was another team that you looked at in the off-season and said, "Why aren't they signing a pitcher?" They have all this great young hitting talent, and, and some of that young hitting talent has failed them this year, no question about it.

And it's not just the lack of pitching, 'cause ironically when they do decide to sell, they've got some starting pitchers who are gonna bring some stuff back to them.

Uh, Charlie Morton, who they signed, uh, this off-season to a one-year deal and was removed from the rotation in April 'cause he was just terrible and people were talking about him maybe retiring early, uh, he's been one of the best pitchers in the game since he got back in the rotation in May, with like a two and a half ERA at age 41.

Um, you know, Zac Effler's got some playoff experience.

He's gonna be back from the IL soon.

Yeah.

He's biased.

Um, right.

And so, you know, uh, Kyle Gibson, they brought back.

He was terrible.

They just released him.

Uh, the one sort of bright spot in the rotation, uh, Sugano, the Japanese pitcher they brought over, has got a 3.00 ERA and he's pitched pretty well, but he's 35.

He's not a long-term answer, um, to their, to their situation.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, yeah, and, and they're gonna get Acuna back, and, and that'll help.

Uh, I, I think the most surprising team to me is probably the Giants.

Uh, you know, they're leading the NL West, and, uh, you know, they made some moves this off season, but I, I didn't have them in the same class as the Dodgers, uh, the Diamondbacks or the Padres.

And the Giants have been really good, and when you look at it, it's, um, you know, I, I don't know.

I don't wanna say it's smoke and mirrors, but, you know, Wilmer Flores leads the league with 28 RBIs, and, uh, you know, Jung-hoo Lee, who was a rookie last year but hurt, you know, he's had a 930 OPS.

Are these things gonna be able to carry on? I don't know.

Sure.

Yes.

Uh, and if there was a, um, you know, sort of that's the way things went, that would be the way things would go.

But I, I, I'd be surprised.Um, you know, Bregman, in all likelihood, opts out after this year if he has a good year and goes back to the free agent market.

So, um, you know, Eh, the Red Sox have to try to figure out a way to keep Devers happy.

Now, a- a- nobody's going to be happy 0 for 16 with 12 strikeouts, right? I mean that's...

We know that.

So couple hits, maybe a home run this weekend, this week, uh, and all of a sudden Rafi Devers'll, will probably have more of a smile on his face than he's had-

Oh.

But where are umps on this and where are players on this in the early stages?

Well, I think umps would have had a much bigger problem if this had become the ABS was the rule of law for every pitch in the game.

You know, if you can only challenge two or three pitches on each side.

And also there might be many situations where you challenge a pitch and guess what? The elbow got it right.

So, you know, I think umpires to me, I know that people love to rag on them and kill them for the bad calls.

And we only know the names of the ones who make the bad calls.

Umpiring a baseball game to me is as hard as, Well, I won't say it's harder than reffing a hockey game because they actually have to, like, skate.

I don't want that.

Why would he do it? It's only the money?

Yes.

I think when you look at it, there's some people who theorize, well, he didn't want to be in Judge's shadow.

He wanted to be the man on his own team.

But you're going to a team where Francisco Lindor has pretty firmly established himself as the man there.

So if nothing else, you're walking in on somebody else's team and trying to steal that away.

I don't think that's it.

But where does this money come from?