[laughs]

... elite defensive third baseman, and all that comes together to give you, like, a three or four win player, which is huge for a team that, uh, you know, can use all the offensive or position player depth they can get and is also just terrible defensively, as bad defensively as the Cubs are good.

And so having an elite defender like Stott out there is big.

And, uh, you know, so I sort of talked to him about that and, you know, talked to him about ...

You know, it's interesting.

I love talking to, to great base stealers, um, and they all have unique processes, and Stotts is just so straightforward.

He just knows how long.

Yeah

Yeah

... uh, for most of the past few weeks after that last bullpen session.

And they've got such a huge lead in the division, like...

And, you know, I said this in my piece, they're gonna be in kind of a dog fight with the Braves for the second bye, which is huge, but at the same time, Ohtani's not actually helping them pursue that goal if he's hitting in the position that he's in right now.

So give him a couple weeks off, get him as close to better as you can, and get him back for the playoffs.

And, you know, I think they made a mistake not pushing that button about a week earlier than they did, but I think it's, it's just, like, the entire relationship between Ohtani and the Dodgers, you need to be able to treat this guy like a normal player sometimes.

Mm-hmm.

You know, what happens if he doesn't bounce back at, with some rest? And I think, at this point, I don't know that there's a whole lot that, I don't know a whole lot that, that the Dodgers could do to really influence the outcome of what Ohtani can do for them, 'cause I think even if he's diminished, and even if he's only hitting, if he's like, I think it, it was about a 119 WRC+ in the second half, uh, if I have, have the numbers right.

rather than accentuating it big time with neon lights in the middle of the summer.

And I think a lot of the reason for that has been that the form system has just not produced.

I mean, one of the reasons that I was optimistic about 2026 was they were getting internal help for the first time since like 2006, you know, like I, I thought that that painter was going to be good.

I thought Crawford was going to Crawford has been sort of on the lower end of what I expected.

I thought there was a chance that maybe you'd figure everything out.

And, you know, I was hoping that Aiden Miller would be staking a claim to third base right now, which obviously, you know, that's a wait till next year thing at this point.

So yeah, you know, the Phillies and Brewers are in very, very different situations.

like,

[laughs]

... graphic go off for any pitch velocity over 95.

And now we've got lefty starters who are 95 and it's not a big deal.

I hate it, man.

Like, everybody's trying too hard.

Just generally in society, I think we all need to chill out a little bit.

And all these try-hards with their 98 mile an hour fastballs are just wrecking the curve for everybody, causing all sorts of problems.

Um, but what was, uh, you know, where'd you focus on Yelich? What's front of mind, uh, for you with him as the Brewers try to make a, another run here?

Is that probably the biggest challenge to making the draft a, a bigger kind of entertainment event for fans?

I think that's exactly it, and it would not surprise me if that challenge is insurmountable in terms of, uh, getting the average fan into it.

You know, the number one pick this year is an incredibly polished college shortstop named Brock Wolakowski, uh, who is, I would say at best, 18 months from the major leagues.

Um, you know, he's sort of like Dansby Swanson is a, a, im- very, very rough comp, but like that's sort of the timeline he was on.

Um, it's almost unheard of for a player to come up and make an impact within 12 months.

Um, you know, short of somebody like Paul Scears who was like the like uber dominant college pitcher.

Um, and you know, college baseball is a very, very popular sport, but only within certain parts of the country.

Uh, so I'm wondering if you experienced any of that or that came up in conversation actually being there on the ground.

So-

So-Moniak was drafted as this quarter sort of on base table setting contact hitting center fielder, and he's turned into like a bit of a hacker power guy, and to say nothing of the fact he plays in Coors Field.

So he hit 24 home runs last year.

The leader among those number one overall draft selections in home runs was Spencer Torkelson at 31.

Dansby Swanson I think hit 24.

Uh, Harper hit 27, so Moniak is like right in there, and I think we're like one hot streak away from, from him being a better home run hitter at least for one season than a couple of guys we think of as having like serious power.

[laughs]

And so assault here in the broadest form of the word.