SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Walk Off Slams with Greg Zahn on AM 1150.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Walk Off Slams. I'm your host, Greg Zahn, and uh the Jays have come off a road trip to the West Coast where we saw them play the Seattle Mariners and the San Francisco Giants. Bunch of different things going on. Saw an almost no-no by Dylan Sees. We found out that uh Vlad Jr. is gonna pass on the All-Star game, and uh we were introduced to the Home Run Dragon. And uh it's kind of funny that that's uh even a topic of conversation, a stuffed animal, but uh let's let's get into the hitting woes. This is this one of those things that that I've been talking about all summer. Uh the ball club has been a shell of what it was, or is it a shell of what it was. It's well, in my opinion, not it not a shell of what it was. It is exactly what it was. It's a bunch of guys who seemingly have no plan at the plate, they have no approach other than to go up and swing the bat, with the exception of Vlad Jr., who is, in my opinion, at times lost, doesn't have any idea what he's looking for. Uh we've talked about timing issues, we've talked about uh things that are very hard for the lay person to just to understand, but just understand this. If there's as many moving parts in his swing as there are, it's gonna be difficult to time them all up. It's it's hard. Think of a watch, um, all the different gears, you know. If one of them goes wrong, the whole thing stops working. Uh that's why you know the simplest things in the world are you know very few pieces. A ball. It rolls because it's a ball. There's nothing else there. It's just a ball and it's round and it rolls. Uh and as long as it's put in motion, it works. The question that I get all the time is, you know, what's what's the difference between this year and last year with the Blue Jays? It's the same guys, pretty much. They all had career years, they all they all stepped up and and did some things. Well, there's some psychological disadvantage to all of a sudden everybody's injured. I mean, right out of the gate. I mean, it wasn't even a member of the offense, but you know, the Jays had massive hopes for the season. And they go out and they get Cody Pons, and they go out and they get Dylan Sees, and they think, yeah, our offense was awesome last year. We need more pitching. Uh no, you you definitely needed pitching, but you you definitely needed a few more offensive pieces that were different than the ones that you had. So when I look at the construction of the offensive roster, that's what I blame for the problems. Because there's no way anybody that's paying attention can look at the roster from last year and think, I've got 14 parts that move exactly the same. And I've got no surplus of extra bats, hard to come by, they're expensive. I've got a bunch of guys who can be plugged in and look exactly the same, and if they're all doing well at the same time, man, we look like geniuses because we're cheap. It's inexpensive in that particular regard. But they're all the same. Meaning what? Meaning the entire game can pitch the entire team exactly the same, and that's exactly what they've done. They've not thrown them strikes, and they've been completely and utterly exposed. Then you couple that with all the injuries and guys having down years. Maybe it's a byproduct of just being all down at the same time, or is it a byproduct of the league figuring out you don't have to throw the Toronto Blue Jays strikes? Well, I think that that's definitely one thing about it. It's amazing what stats and data and analytics can do when they're looked at properly. And, you know, I go back to Ricky Romero. You know, it's amazing how when the league discovers what it is that you're doing, they make adjustments. Ricky had unbelievable stuff, great makeup, um, but they figured out that Rick didn't throw the ball over the plate in order to get his outs. He didn't get very many outs in the strike zone. He got most of his outs out of the strike zone. So what does the league do? They go Statue of Liberty on him. Meaning they just sit there and they take. They take a strike. And they figured, well, I'm going to get the same nasty stuff, 0-1, as I got 0-0. Uh the statistics say that he's getting most of his outs outside of the zone. And, you know, he threw a lot of 0-2 pitches. He threw a lot of pitches that were balls coming out of his hand and finished out of the zone. And then once they figured it out, now all of a sudden they take a pitch and he's got them 1-0. And now they're now they're in the driver's seat, and batting average goes significantly up. The difference between 0-1 and 1-0 is, I don't know, like three or four hundred points. So, pretty significant change. The league did the other thing to the hitters. Um, you know, Ernie Clement is Ernie Clement. Ernie Clement's always going to trick people who don't know the game into thinking that this guy's, you know, massively productive because they just they see a lot of hits. But what they don't pay attention to is they don't see a lot of quick at bats, the ripple effect that it has on the teammates, uh, the fact that there's not nearly as much production per hit as a lot of other guys in the league. And and you know, batting average is great. I love batting average. I mean, it's it's it's lost. Last time I checked, there were only like nine guys in the entire major leagues hitting over 300. So it tells you a lot about the status of the game. And but people can be tricked by smoke and mirrors, and you know, in my opinion, his his numbers are a lot of smoke and mirrors. Now, the other guys on the team, uh, they're not getting the hits. They're not driving in the runs, they're not hitting the ball out of the ballpark, and they certainly don't take walks. Now, they scored some runs in San Francisco after getting fault 10-1, and I think the scoreless streak reached 29 innings if you count killing it by a one-run homer. They lost 10-1 in the opener in San Francisco, and it's it is it's but it's just indicative of what we've been watching all summer. And you sit there and you go, well, is there anyone to blame for this? Well, you know, I I look at it this way coaches coach what they're given. So when you look at the construction of this roster, you look at the the personnel that they that they put together, it's it's easy to stand pat when you go within you know one run of winning the World Series. And and I I can see the logic there. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, if it if it's broken and it gets lucky, I mean, broken clocks are you know, they're lucky twice a day. They're correct, twice a day. So you can look at it however you want. I just think that you need a lot of different pieces, and they can't all be hack, hack, hack. They've got to have a plan, you've got to have the ability to do some things. You need some guys in your lineup that can hit the ball out of the ballpark so you don't have to play with a lead every night. You know, you've got to be able to come back from three and four runs down quickly. Uh that's important. You need guys that can get on base, you need table setters. The formula's not different. It's it's been the same forever. And I'm staring at a team that looks exactly the same to me on paper, and and I get why the why the Jays stood Pat, but now I think they're learning a valuable lesson about how to construct a roster that's built to win. And, you know, what I what I noticed, and it hit me a while back, was that the last part of the game with the Blue Jays in the World Series was a prelude of what was to come. We're seeing exactly what we saw the last few innings of the World Series of Game 7. Undisciplined at bats and very little production. When all it took was a fly ball to center field to win the game. And we didn't get it as Blue Jays fans. Uh you you look at it, and now uh it's you know the point. So uh I don't I don't necessarily fault you know Poppins, the hitting coach, but I would say this it's it's kind of a head scratcher that all of a sudden Mattingley's gone. Poppins is without him, the Jays have a bunch of guys who can't make an adjustment, namely Vlad. And there's no Mattingley around. There's no guy with a major league career with street cred. Uh, you know, I'm certainly not going to blame Poppins and say that, you know, it's on him, but I'm certainly not going to give him credit for what happened last year either. Because that's not an approach, what we saw last year. What they do now is not an approach, it's go up and swing. Um everybody in the world knows that the the the what the Jays need right now is an adjustment in the approach at home plate. They don't need a home run dragon. Okay? They don't need a new home run celebration. What they need is an adjustment. And that's the problem. You know, people are asking me now too, oh, uh, why can't they make an adjustment? Well, because they don't want to, because the organization's not saying that they need to, because they don't have somebody with enough street cred to tell them that this is how it's done, this is the way to do it. I mean, if I'm looking at those guys, guys with very little, you know, professional baseball experience, very little big league experience, they're gonna tell me, well, this is how you do it. And I'm gonna be like, how do you know? Have you ever done it? And if so, for how long? And what did it feel like to be in a major league box? What's it feel like to get within one out of the world series and lose and come back and have the world fall apart in the first week of the season? How do you know? Well, you don't know. Um, you know. So we'll we'll gloss over the home run dragon, we'll gloss over the new home run celebration. People are like, oh we found the magic formula. Well, that's that's you know, witchcraft and magic and superstition and all that kind of stuff. Is the home run dragon working? It is if they say it is. Does you know putting a penny in your shoe uh help you hit when you're in a slump? It does if you think it does. Uh it's it's placebo effect. You know, it it and hitters are are weak minded. Athletes can be weak minded. They're grasping for whatever. They don't want to identify and face the real problem, which it which is scary. It'd be scary for guys on the roster to change the way they approach their at-bats, to actually be held accountable for a professional at-bat. For somebody to be required to make an adjustment or risk losing their job. That's scary. A stuffed animal, not scary. A new home run celebration, uh, it's not gonna get used much. I'm telling you. They don't hit many home runs. So uh you can talk about all that stuff to your blue in the face, but uh the point is that we're, you know, not gonna seem much different, I don't think. You know, talk about Guerrero, it's the same thing I've been talking about. Now all of a sudden, uh, you know, Hopkins is talking about, you know, there's you know, too many moving parts, he's changing pitch. Everything that they're talking about, these are symptoms. You want to treat the root of the problem. You don't treat the symptoms. Treat the root of the problem. Why is he chasing too many pitches? Uh he's chasing too many pitches because he's late on everything. He's got too many moving parts. Again, I said it. Too many moving parts. They can't get him to stop moving all these parts. Somebody's got to get him to stop moving all these parts. I watched Albert Pujos, an ex-big league ball player, uh, talk about you know his bat angles and we can see all the mechanical stuff, but he's chasing pitches because he's not settled in the box with his foot down and his hands back in a position to read the pitches. So, and then is he is he is he upset? Is he putting pressure on himself? Well, of course he is. Why is he not hitting for power? Why is he hitting for so many balls on the ground? Because he's late. His swing looks like a check mark instead of a Nike swoosh. The Nike swoosh is a perfect example of what a swing looks like down, flat, and then slightly up at the end. And his is the check mark. And why is it a check mark? Because he gets to the point where he thinks he's gonna be catching the ball out front, which is what you need to do to hit for power. You don't dump the barrel behind you, you swing and you you catch the ball up front. Well, how do you catch the ball up front? Put yourself in good hitting counts, have good hitting mechanics, trust it, catch the ball out front. He's late on every pitch. Late, late, late. Why is he late? Too many moving parts, too hard to time up. Then add the back problem. Okay? We're not going to make excuses for Vlad. You know, he's spending an enormous amount of time in the cage, we're told, well, you can't do that if your back's hurt, but it certainly would contribute to it. So all of these things are hand in glove with the fact that he's got too many moving parts and he's late. He's late getting separated. Imagine a boxer. He's right-handed, he's throwing his jab, and as he throws his jab, that right hand is pulling back, pulling back, pulling back. And then as soon as the front foot hits, bam, he smokes you right in the nose. Okay, well, that's how you hit. You draw the bow, you separate, you walk away from your hands, whatever you want to call it, you load up, but if the front foot's not down, and he actually steps backwards before he steps forward, drops his hands into a bad spot. I've been watching video of him lately, and he's really not loaded up. His hands are not getting back, foot's not getting down on time. And there it is. It's it's it's it's the core problem. You don't put a band-aid on a broken leg. You have surgery or you put a cast on it and you wait six weeks. Plain and simple. You know, they're gonna try to treat the symptoms. Well, that's amateur hour. Fix the problem. But you know, he's putting an enormous amount of pressure on himself, and that's not good. Dylan Cease flirted with the no-no. It doesn't surprise me. I'm actually surprised when the guy gives up five, six hits because his stuff is squirrely and it's nasty, and you know, I'm not gonna say congratulations. I love it, I want to see more. Everybody's worried about Bieber. He's looked awful against the Mariners. And you know what? Bieber is a guy who has never relied on stuff. He's not gonna outstuff you. He needs to throw the ball on the edges of the strike zone. Right now, the best chance to throw the ball on the edges of the strike zone is his fastball. I watched his pitch selection against the Mariners, and I was throwing things at the TV. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. You were rolling that garbage curveball up there one after another, and it's the pitch that got him in trouble. His curveball has no no no pop, or I should say it has a lot of pop. It's popping, and everybody can see it, and he's overusing it, and it's time for him to get back to fastball because all the break and slop, those are field pitches. The brake and slop is feel. And until you get your feel back, and you get your feel back by throwing a lot of pitches. He needs to throw his fastball, he needs to throw his change up. It's the purest combo in the game, you know, and and and I think if you can just stay on the edges with fastball and change up for a little while, sprinkle in the break and ball until he really gets his feel back, uh, he'll be fine. I didn't see any sort of problems with the delivery. I didn't see him backing it off. It looked like he was throwing the ball free of pain and easy, but he's been up in the zone, which is timing. He's been in the middle of the lot, which is timing. Uh and also the pitch selection's been garbage. And he he definitely needs to, like I said, you think it was, you think I'm crazy, but he needs to throw more fastballs. And he needs to get more pitches under his belt. You know, they keep rushing these guys back from the disabled list. And, you know, you can't look at what a guy does against AAA hitters and say, oh, he's ready. Is he is he are you so desperate to get these guys back into the rotation, back into the lineup? Like Alejandro Kurt, garbage spring, uh, garbage start through the year, uh, rushed him back. And look at it, it's he he could have had reset his whole season by just being patient. He, I think he caught like one game, two games in the Myerlies before they brought him back. You don't think fatigue on a guy who doesn't exactly look good in the uniform is going to be an issue with performance? Like, come on, guys, let's let's go. Uh Bieber needs some seasoning. No one don't nobody panic because you don't have anything better. I mean, especially when you're kicking guys like Simeon Woods Richardson to the curb after 10 scoreless innings, you get what you get. So, yeah, that's that's a lot. But, you know, the Jays are the Jays gotta be sellers at the deadline. I'm sorry, even as bad as the American League is this year, I don't I don't see a way back. I really don't. I think it's time for everybody to call it what it is. But as long as those crowds keep showing up at Sky Dome, there's nothing they can do. They gotta keep keep the roster together. When we come back on Walk Off Slams, we'll talk Major League Baseball news.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

You're listening to Walk Off Slams with Greg Zahn on AM 1150.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Welcome back to Walk Off Slams. I'm your host, Greg Zahn, and we are talking Major League Baseball news. At the top of the show, you heard me talk about the mentioned Don Mattingley, and you know, Don Mattingly has gotten the Phillies, if you want to give him credit for it, uh absolutely red hot. I mean, this team has absolutely caught fire since Don Mattingley took over as the manager, and they are legitimately in striking distance of the Atlanta Braves. They are extremely close in the standings, and it's unbelievable how just the changing of the voice, and and everybody around Major League Baseball will tell you that you know Rob Thompson was a good dude and a good baseball man, and I'm here to verify that. I I was around the guy a little bit, you know, on the other side of the field, but yeah, legit, totally legit. And it was just one of those unfortunate situations where it was time for a change of voice. But, you know, as we sit here, you know, the the Phillies are within a couple of games of the Braves, as far as the the wild card goes, I mean, they're right there in it. It's it's insane uh how we look at a team that started off as poorly as they did, and they're you know completely back into it. I mean, they they're one when you're when you're within a a s uh uh when you're within a series of Another ball club, uh, that's that's when you know it's good. They're 10 games over 500 as we're speaking right now. Um, and yeah. Now, interestingly enough, the Miami Marlins, as I sit here today, have exactly the same record as the Phillies, and they did it pretty quietly. Um, so interesting. I mean, there was a whole lot of talk about uh Sandy Alcantara, um, and it's you know, they were gonna trade him. Well, I'm sorry, you're not gonna trade him. You're you're definitely not trading him. And uh they're gonna be in it because they look like legitimate contenders now. Uh so uh they're gonna be making a lot of noise. It's funny how baseball turns. In the beginning of the year, it was the NL Central that was the surprise. And you know, all the teams were above 500, they were all playing great. Well, the the Reds disappeared, and now it's the NL East. Well, three teams in the NL East. It's the Marlins, the Phillies, and the Braves. We we know about the dumpster fire that is the New York Mets and how they were supposed to be the team, but kind of get what you deserve when you throw away a key cog like Pete Alonzo? I don't know. Guy's doing great in New York, face of the franchise, pretty much. Everybody loves him, and you just kick him in the curb and yeah. Yeah, okay. Nice, nice decision there. That's uh one of those things that you you just have to scratch your head. But you know, back to the good stuff. You know, Harper is doing Harper-like things, he's gonna be in the all-star game home run derby. Uh Sanchez is still dealing. You know, I mean, just be careful with the Phillies National League. You you let the Phillies into the postseason and they're uh they're gonna make some noise. They are they have just enough great starting pitching and a bunch of knuckleheads who seem to get geared up for the postseason. They play really well. Uh Schwarber, he's the best pure power hitter in the game. You know, he'll swing and miss a bunch, he'll strike out a bunch, he's not gonna not gonna win any batting titles, I don't imagine, but man, can the guy hit some bombs? And he hits extra base hits and that helps. If you don't put the ball in play all the time, you better hit, you know, you better hit it out of the ballpark, you better hit it off the wall and be trotten into second base. Um otherwise you're pretty much no use to guys. Uh he's uh done an amazing job. And you know, that that's a powerful lineup in a small little ballpark and a fun team to watch, especially in the postseason. So buckle up, gang. It's gonna be fun in the NL East. I can't even I can't even believe we're talking about the Miami Marlins. It's absolutely awesome. Thrilled to death for Clayton McCullough. Uh funny story, you know, when I was with the Toronto Blue Jays, he used to hang around and just listen. Just listen to Ball. You know, be some of us veteran guys sitting around and he's like, yeah, mind if I just you know hang out and hear what you gotta say. And yeah, what what a what a rise for for Clayton. I mean, just fantastic. Yeah. Uh what is going on on the south side of Chicago? Are these Chicago White Sox for real? Well, yeah, they're for real. Um they're getting it done, and it's pretty fun to watch. Um I never I did not see this coming. I didn't think they were there yet, but they are. Uh the twins decimated by injuries. Cleveland lost, you know, Jose Ramirez. Scuble's elbow injury had a bigger effect on that division than people think. Uh it just changed the whole dynamic. And the White Sox are just it's the perfect storm right now. And when you look at the way things happen, you know, one one injury in a division and how it can affect the rest of the division. Well, you play each other a lot. And you know, when when somebody smells blood in the water, you know, there you go. I mean, it's it's tough. Uh the American League is is still somewhat up for grabs, but as of right now, the White Sox, the Indians, they are deadlocked. The Twins, they're two games, let's just put it to you, this let's show you how bad the American League is. The Twins are two games under 500, two games under, and they're two games out of first place. So another race, the American League Central, heating up. I don't think the Twins have enough to sustain uh uh any sort of pressure. Uh the Tigers are long gone. The Royals are, I I just can't even believe how bad they are. Um but yeah, things are pretty tight in the American League. And you know, when you look at the records, um still only a handful of teams above 500. Two, four, uh, six, yeah, six teams. Six teams in the American League above 500. It's garbage. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen it in my entire lifetime this bad. Uh, but the White Sox are doing really, really well. I was surprised by them. Like I said, the big the big key reasons. You know, they're playing better baseball. Uh Twins and Tigers, Indians, all with injuries. And uh it plays. It's the those things, those things matter. Justin Verlander is going to retire. Uh, obviously a first ballot Hall of Famer. You know, when it's time, it's time. You know it's time. And uh, yeah. I mean, I this guy jammed me so bad one time. I felt like when I looked down, the ball was actually like stuck to my to my bar my bat, not the barrel, about two inches above my left hand. And it seemed like it was in slow motion, just grinding, like drilling, like a drill bit through my bat. I I swear to God, I had that moment. I've never been jammed so bad that I didn't get out of the box. Like he hit his ball hit me with such force in such a bad place that I was unable to get off, get out of the box. In fact, I think he almost took my legs out from underneath me with it. It just, I couldn't even believe it. His stuff was so nasty. And and the one thing I love, and it was never more evident about the guy. You want to talk about elite stuff with elite makeup, you know, the the no-no at the Rogers Center, um, or as I like to call it still, Sky Dome. Uh he was throwing harder in the ninth inning than he was in the sixth. The guy had another gear like most super star athletes, pitchers do. I mean, just incredible. I mean, I don't I don't know just everything about it, and and he's a tale of patience. The guy was nothing to write home about, you know, out of high school, early in college, and then all of a sudden you got stronger, more mechanically in sync, learned how to pitch, and couple that with great stuff, great makeup, and wow, what a career! You know, congrats to Justin Verlander a little early on the retirement, but uh obviously a first ballot Hall of Famer. So now we get to the ugly part of sports and whatnot, and just a head scratcher, Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants pitcher, has deleted his Twitter account. Apparently, he didn't like what some people were saying on Twitter, namely a guy named Jack Loder, writer. Well, who is this guy, Jack Loder? And who is he to Logan Webb? And why on earth does a guy like Logan Webb care what Jack Loder thinks? Um you better learn pretty quickly as an athlete. You know, if you if you don't like what people are saying, don't listen. Turn the channel and certainly don't go on Twitter. Good God, it's a cesspool of all the social media platforms. You you get more trash talking on that platform than anywhere else. I mean, people are just miserable. They think that because they have an account, social media has given everybody an opinion, everybody a voice, even when that voice isn't qualified to talk. It's one of the reasons why I got off. I found myself engaging with people who were unqualified to have a baseball conversation with me. Because a conversation is a back and forth. It's two people exchanging ideas. Well, when you're unqualified to talk on a subject, all you can do, really respectfully, is ask questions to the person that is qualified to talk about the subject. And I think that's something that we've lost in society is respect. Respect for one another, respect for seniority, for tenure, etc. etc. If you're unqualified to talk about something, I'm not gonna have a conversation with you about it. I don't want to. And it's certainly not gonna let you into my in my brain and let you live rent-free there. Apparently, how Jack Loader was living around living in Logan Webb's head. Like, the back and forth between you and disgruntled fans, like, what do you expect, bro? You're the number one starter for the San Francisco Giants, and your team sucks. Like, why would you engage with people? What's the point, dude? I mean, I'm not gonna say that they're beneath you, but in a baseball conversation? Uh probably, yeah, they are. So why on earth would you care? And when a reporter, I don't know if this guy's even, I'm not even gonna bother looking it up. I don't know if he is even a certified member of the Baseball Writers Association, but let's pursue, let's pretend for a minute that he is. His points are not offline, they're not they're not out of line. These are questions that you have to ask yourself. I mean, you you can't have it both ways. If you want the love, you better take the criticism. I mean, there's a level of accountability that goes along with being a big leaguer, especially when you are the ace. And so when Loder questions, you know, what's the mental status of the Giants after getting thumped, especially in one of his starts? Well, of course you know what it is. I mean, and and Giants fans, writers, I mean, everybody. We have a right to believe that when Logan Webb takes the bump for the San Francisco Giants, that in five days that's their best chance to win. He's their best chance to win a ballgame. That's not unfair. That's not unrealistic to have those expectations. And if you don't, if you don't want those expectations, if you can't handle those expectations, you're in the wrong business, pal. Um you know, social is just a cesspool. You you can't you can't be angry that people who are entitled to their opinion about your performance are exercising it on the platform it was designed to be exercised on. Like, this is what social media is. It gives people who don't have a voice a voice. It allows them to talk about everything. I mean, come on. Like, just and I don't understand why athletes are on social media interacting with the fans at all. Like, dude, put your uniform in the bin, get your get your street clothes on, go home, kiss your wife, and leave it alone. Like, but it's this constant need for dopamine hits. Like, I gotta be loved, and I I'm gonna increase my platform, and I'm gonna I'm gonna give people what they want and make everybody happy, and it's gonna make me more money. Well, it ain't gonna make you more money, but trust me, I'll tell you that right now. There's no money in it. You gotta be ridiculously popular, and who has that kind of time? You know, it it it's it's just one of those things where you go go home and have some peace and quiet, get away from the game. You know, everybody's gonna lay an egg once in a while, and you you better expect to hear about it. If the criticism is fair and warranted, you gotta wear it, bud. You can't just let people into your house. And, you know, and now the the deletion of the Twitter account after the exchange with Loader and the fans, it just makes you look weak and soft. You know? What are you doing on there, anyways? Give it a break. Like, how much positive things could there be said about the San Francisco Giants this year? There's not a whole lot of good stuff going on. And when you're the ace of the franchise and you don't do your job and go out and pitch a competitive ballgame and give your team every chance to win. Well, you're gonna hear it, bud, and it's it's absolutely the rights of the fans. It's absolutely the rights of the writers to be fair in their criticism. When you engage with people, you invite unfair criticism. You know, don't poke the dog, don't poke the bear, and and and not expect to get bit because all they're gonna do is gang up on you. I mean, how long has social media been around? Exactly. The mob, the mob mentality. It's what it's all about. That's how that's how this works. Um, you're never gonna please everybody all of the time. And if you think you are, you definitely want to get a new job. Uh on another note, the trade deadline is fast approaching. Uh, there's a lot of people being talked about, pitching, namely, that's that's probably gonna be out there and moving. Uh Sandy Alcantera, he ain't going nowhere. Uh that's a guy that everybody's been after. There's been trade rumors about this guy forever. Some interesting names out here that are coming up. Reed Detmers, Angels. That guy, legit. Somebody could scoop that dude out. That would be a huge, huge boost. That'd be some serious depth. Um, and he's under club control until the 2028 season, which makes him even more attractive. The Angels are doing absolutely nothing. Uh, so look for Reed Detmers. Sonny Gray's got got some street cred, throw the ball really well for the Boston Red Sox. He's an experienced guy. I think I think this guy could be uh one of those dark horses and give you some quality innings in the postseason. That's a very interesting game to me. Uh you know, Foster Griffin, Seth Lugo. I mean, God, the Royals suck. They're so bad. Um, there's there's there's some money left on that contract. Uh, Casey Mys, Freddie Peralta, like I don't see how this guy isn't on the move. He's his mechanics are off this year. He's been fighting with command issues, but this is a really exciting arm. Um and depending on just how frisky you're feeling, you know, with the uh he's got you know eight million dollars left on his contract for the rest of this year, yeah, it could be worth it. Robbie Ray, left-handed pitcher with the Giants, veteran. You know, these guys, these veterans that are kind of in their early to mid-30s, and he's 34, these guys are the valuable ones going down the stretch because they're not they're not, you know, some electric rookie that's that might you know completely blow up under the microscope of the postseason and and the hot lights. You know, Robbie Ray's been around the block a few times, and I think he's one of those guys that that could be a huge piece. One that's really interesting for me is Joe Ryan from the Twins. Guys rocking a 285 ERA in 19 starts. Uh obviously we know the Americ's a dumpster fire this year. Everybody's kind of in it, but um he's got some interesting contract language that could be really attractive to future team, and he's throwing the ball great. Uh doesn't necessarily have the postseason credibility that people would be looking for, but definitely interesting nonetheless. Terek Skubel, oh man. I want to say the the Tigers have to keep this guy, you know, just and just flush flush the 2026 season down and and and re-sign this dude. But I keep coming back to Detroit. I know they've rebuilt the city and everything, but really, is this where you want to is this where you want to put down roots? Is this where you want to buy your forever home? Is this where you want your kids to go to school? Um I don't know. It's it's just I don't I don't see how I don't see how they can do it. I mean, even with the elbow surgery, he's got three 306 ERA and he's Terek Scoobel. Um, you know, he he's gonna cost somebody a pretty penny though, um making $32 million this year. So he's gonna be somebody's gonna owe him probably about $10 million for the rest of the season once they finally do get him. But uh yeah, you you know it. It's not like we're worried about the performance there. You get this guy, it's it's a game changer. Uh an absolute game changer. And if I'm the team trading for him, I'm trying to do a sign and trade, trying to get an extension dealt with before, but his agent would be an idiot to allow that to happen. He's got to hit the free agent market. Jose Soriano with the Angels, another guy. Uh, yeah, they should just go ahead and get rid of the whole team, trade any piece of value that they can get. And uh yeah, that's uh Michael Walka, another guy with some with some postseason experience. So uh should be interesting coming down. Um but nonetheless, we're out of time for this segment, so it's time for me to move on. When we come back on walk-off slams, your favorite, my favorite. Uh I'm already fired up. Probably already gave you a mini roast, but the Sunday roast when we come back on Walk-Off Slams.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

And now, the Sunday roast with Greg's on.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

The Major League Trade Deadline is an event on the baseball calendar that everyone looks forward to. But why? It's a seller's market where teams who are cutting bait trade away proven Major League performers for the promise of tomorrow in an effort to save money. Historically, it has not worked out for the teams receiving what they hope will be difference makers. For every Erollis Chapman and Justin Verlender, there are dozens of deals that make you scratch your head. Hall of Famers like Randy Johnson were packaged and traded for rentals, and for what? Marginal returns and no World Series title? In theory, it makes some sense when you have a surplus of talent to offer for what you hope will be a difference maker, but it rarely yields the desired result, a World Series title. So how much sense does it make to push all your chips into the middle in this game of MLB hold'em? It's a high risk, low yield scenario. If airline travel yielded the same results, you'd think twice about getting on a plane. Hell, marriage has a better success rate, and I'll never do that again. So why do major league teams fall victim to the honey trap? Pressure from the fan base and the hopes of hoisting gold. Year after year we sit and ponder the chess pieces and where we'd move them. We weigh the option of standing pat and checking instead of raising the stakes. In a world of analytics gone wrong, how on earth can the pundits justify such moves? The answer is simple. They think they're smarter than everyone else. Clearly they are not. Often it's the moves you don't make that yield the greatest results. Can you imagine Jordan Alvarez in a Dodgers uniform? What about John Smoltz as a tiger and what would he have meant to the organization? How about the big unit as an expo? Who knows? Maybe the expos would still be in Montreal. What would they look like with Pedro Martinez and the unit in the starting rotation? The topic of the day is collective bargaining and how baseball can change it to increase the parity among the 30 teams. It's a battle of the haves versus the have nots. In the end, it comes down to the decision making and one group's ability to create sustainable success on the field. How can they justify spending $392 million and signing bonuses alone for kids whose only success has come against future men's leakers? And how can they justify leveraging the future of an organization on the flip of a coin? Wait. For example, the odds of winning are better when you call tails. Always bet black, they say. Well, there's a reason the lights will never go out in Vegas. The house always wins in the end, and so do the sellers at the trade deadline. Statistically, you're more likely to come out on the short end of the stick when it comes to trading for short-term help. So again I ask, why do these guys who have the benefit of years of proof keep bucking the numbers? This year will be no different. Deals will be made for the sake of making a deal. There will be winners and losers, but ultimately we are not likely to see any deal reap the bounty of a World Series title. Perhaps Terrick Skubel to the Dodgers will light up the baseball world and the Dodgers will be victorious again. Perhaps they'll win it anyway without him. Either way, the good teams are still gonna be good, the bad teams are still gonna be bad, and none of these deals will ultimately impact the fortunes of an organization. So why make them? It's Sunday. Can you smell that roast?