All-Star Rosters Announced

JC & Chris discuss All-Star Game snubs and potential starters, Who is hot and cold across the MLB, the National League Wild Card Race, the Pirates pitching dilemma, and more!

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what is up and welcome back

to the inside the diamonds

podcast I am your host

tonight chris and I am not

alone oh no no no no guess

who's back it is jc we are

back hey cj how you doing I

am fantastic how are you

good to be back okay again

as I mentioned apologize for the past and

month between the vacation

and work hitting our busy season.

I've been pulling a lot more

work duty and trying to

pitch in around the house

for the father duties,

but glad to be back.

A lot going on, a lot of mess.

Thanks for carrying the load

while I've been gone.

I've done a great job.

I enjoyed listening and glad

to be back talking some baseball.

A lot going on.

We're right about at the

halfway point with the

All-Star game next week.

There's a lot of things I

want to talk about.

Probably won't get to them all tonight.

I know that you've got a lot

you want to talk about.

And I figured with the

holiday just past us and

something we've talked about,

I'd let you take the floor

and kind of tell us what

you thought of the 4th of

July presentation by Major

League Baseball.

So I'm going to rant because I'm pissed.

Well, lack thereof, I should say.

Yeah.

So the 4th of July.

This is prime baseball season.

I mean, you've got your All-Star game,

what, a week away, a week and a half away,

and you look at other sports.

Now, yes, it's changed a little bit,

but NBA had Christmas.

They put their best games on

Christmas Day.

Now the NFL has kind of

chipped in at that.

Now we've got a Wednesday

NFL game this year.

But the NFL has Thanksgiving.

And do with it what you will,

but hockey has, for the most part,

I don't think NBA does it,

but Martin Luther King Day,

they have games playing on 1 o'clock,

4 o'clock, 7 o'clock.

And then also they have

Hockey Day in America.

So, I mean,

there's hockey those two days nonstop.

And baseball, you're the floor.

And once July hits, you are the floor.

To not have a single

nationally televised game.

I mean, granted, for me and you,

it doesn't really matter.

We can watch MLB TV.

But to not, you know,

show off your talent that

you have in the league is a

missed opportunity.

So much so that I went

through the slate of the

schedule because I've been

making the graphics now the

full slate schedules for each day.

You could have had this

perfectly set up where not

even saying you did it on

all the same networks.

Like you could have one on MLB Network,

one on ESPN, one on FS1, Fox Sports,

whatever.

You could have had Nationals,

Mets at 11.30, Tradition,

that Nationals game at 11.30.

Yeah, why not?

That makes perfect sense.

That's in the one game that

was at least nationally televised.

You got Reds, Yankees,

you could have put at 1.00.

Orioles Mariners at 410.

Yeah.

Giant spray of 720.

And then you have D-backs Dodgers at 910.

You could have owned that whole day.

Now, granted, yes, people are outside,

you know, doing stuff.

But come 720, people are home.

They're relaxing for the most part.

I was.

I mean, I have an almost two-year-old.

We're home.

You know,

1135 people aren't out at their

cookout yet.

There's your prime

opportunity to put games on.

It's just an absolutely missed opportunity,

and the ball was dropped by

MLB in this case as far as I'm concerned.

Well, here's another thing.

You said that most people are outside.

I was trying to watch the

Red Sox game on my phone.

I was watching games and a

lot of other people, the group I was with,

were always kidding around

about either building a

smoke shack for my smokers

and putting a TV in there

and having a tabletop bar

so the guys can be sitting

there watching whatever

they want for sports.

There's a lot more people.

Yes, you can be outside, but

people have taken their

sports and their passions

outside of their living rooms,

whether it be phone, tablet, outdoor TVs.

Now,

all of a sudden I saw a lot of my

friends watching the NBA

finals outside on those

projected screens.

They missed a huge opportunity.

And I love the idea of the

nationals on the 4th of July,

always having that 1130 game,

11 o'clock game,

whatever it may be and have it be home.

Yeah.

I mean, when you think Thanksgiving,

when you're all with family, right?

Everyone's with family.

Everyone's busy.

Fourth of July is the same thing,

except you're outside.

Still loud.

You can't hear anything.

But what's on in the background?

Always.

Football games.

They missed a huge opportunity.

Not just in the other part

of it is the all-star game

is coming right after.

Right?

So that's when everyone gets

to see these superstars.

Maybe they don't get to watch.

So put them on all these

channels that aren't

blacked out so people can

see different games on so

that they can get to know

some of these players.

That's why I even went as I

was going through.

I picked the games I picked

because you're showcasing

all of your talent.

You know, with the Nationals and the Mets,

you just had James Wood

called up for the Nationals.

You have – the Mets have Alain Dore, Nemo,

Alonzo.

The Reds,

you can showcase Eli De La Cruz

going against Aaron Judge.

You can showcase Juan Soto.

You know, Orioles, Mariners,

two teams that – Orioles are good.

Both division leaders.

Like you're showcasing a

high premier game at 4'10".

Giants-Braves,

you have talent on both teams there.

D-backs-Dodgers, you're showcasing Shohei.

There's a top name in every

single game that I put that

schedule together for.

This is nothing we'll come

up with tonight.

I would love to see what

Nathan's Hot Dog Eating

Contest does for commercial ratings.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

There's still commercial

ratings for companies out there.

I'm sure people pay a lot

for the Super Bowl.

Obviously, we know.

But like during Thanksgiving,

because you got Black Friday coming,

you know what I mean?

So there's definitely money

to be made there.

And we all know that it's a business.

And we know that when it comes down to it,

bottom dollar talks.

So it's just a missed opportunity.

And maybe it's just us

because we're deep involved in baseball.

But we'd love to see what

the rest of you all think.

Did MLB drop the ball on the 4th of July?

Or did you care or don't you care?

Maybe we're just spouting

off and we feel differently

than everyone else.

I don't believe so.

Cause I had the same

conversation with somebody

at work yesterday or no, sorry, Friday.

I had the Red Sox game on my

phone for the extra innings,

but I was score checking

cause nothing else was on.

I mean, granted my phone died.

I have MLB TV.

So like I could watch it, but you know,

I was trying to hang out with the family.

I could listen to anything.

Like I could throw any game

on my phone and still listen.

I don't have to watch all the time,

but just to have something would,

would have been nice.

And I think it was a missed opportunity.

Yeah, no, it's too bad.

I think we've talked a lot

about some of the stuff

that they could have done

differently so far this year.

The Futures games, you know,

early on in spring training,

what they could have done there.

And then the 4th of July.

I don't see why not doing it

just like you do opening day,

in my opinion, just like you laid out.

Yep.

Mine as well.

For the most part, opening day,

I feel like it's all ESPN.

ESPN just owns the rights to that.

But this is one where you could have...

staggered it out.

You could have owned the

whole day even more so and

put a game at one.

There was a couple games at

110 you could have put on

MLB Network and ESPN and

put back and forth.

Here's the way ESPN gets around it.

ESPN has the all-star game.

MLB and ESPN work something out.

They have the derby.

Fox has the all-star game.

They all get together.

And no matter where it's

being shown on national TV,

whether it be is that ESPN

commercials for the Home

Run Derby are on that

network for this one day

and the All-Star game.

You know,

there's ways of making this

better for everyone around.

Now, everyone knows that knows baseball.

The Home Run Derby is on Monday.

It's on ESPN.

And then the All-Star games

are following Tuesday night.

That hasn't changed since.

I don't know when.

I'm 40 and I can remember it as a kid.

I can remember, yeah.

So that's a drop ball.

And I think that obviously

there's a lot more that we

could go into there.

I love the layout that you

played for what could have been.

But it leads right into kind of a topic of

With the all-star rosters coming out,

I know that on ITD we've

been posting by team who's going to play,

who's not going to play,

specifically for teams.

So I wanted to ask you,

did you have a snub in mind

or two snubs or anyone that

you thought should have made the teams?

I have quite a few that I'm intrigued by.

I'm going to start off with the first one,

Clay Holmes.

Now, he's been good this year,

don't get me wrong,

but they put him in over his own teammate,

Luis Gil, who, granted, yes, he's had,

what,

three bad starts and looked

fantastic last night against the Red Sox.

Yeah.

But he's been talked to the AL Cy Young,

like, rookie of the year, like, all year.

How do you not put him in?

But I get it.

If you want to go with the reliever route,

Craig Kimbrell.

Like, the guy's made,

in his last 21 appearances,

I believe I saw today,

he's only allowed one earned run.

Mm-hmm.

And I wrote back in, I think it was May,

we even talked about it on here,

that the Orioles needed relieving help.

And that was their biggest thing.

And now I don't think they do.

Now it's a different shift,

which we'll get into a

little while later.

But another one that goes

into the Clay Holmes

conversation is Kenley.

Kenley,

I think you could have put in there

over Clay Holmes.

Would I put him over Kimbrel?

No.

A little intrigued on,

I'll go right to the next one,

which is Cole Reagans over Luis Hill.

Cole's been good, but

I didn't think that the

Royals warranted having two

starting pitchers over.

Like, if anything, if Waka was healthy,

okay,

maybe I see the conversation for Waka.

Yeah.

Great until he got hurt,

but I don't see Cole

Reagans as an option.

Yep.

I don't know if this is

going to tie into any of

yours because we didn't, you know,

meet up and talk about it.

I haven't shared with you,

and I'm patiently waiting.

I got what?

I got three more.

Oh, shit.

Louisa Rice over Bryce Terang.

you know, terrain has been,

everybody has to talk about the war.

And in this case,

and I agree with a lot of

the people I've listened to

today about this, of war also, um,

what's the word I'm looking for?

Contains your defensive war as well.

And the all-star game,

they don't really care about defense.

So people talk about the war

and the war is not as big

of a thing for the all-star game,

but terrain has been,

I think better than arise this year.

And I think,

I don't know why the project

has been good,

but I don't know why they got as many,

you know,

all-star game candidates as they did.

I mean, their whole outfield's there.

Yeah, I mean, I get Profar.

I don't know if the Chiefs

are going to play.

No, it doesn't sound like it,

but that all subject to change anyway.

The next one, and this was,

I can tie this three different ways,

and I've heard it all day.

Everywhere I've listened has

talked about this.

The Francisco Lindor snub.

They put – and I agree with

everything I've listened to

today on this is why Pete Alonso?

Everybody says Christian Walker,

which I agree.

Christian Walker has been

great and very underrated.

That whole team is really underrated.

They haven't been great,

but Quetel Marte is very underrated.

Christian Walker is underrated.

But a lot of what I've heard

was they did it more along

the lines of they needed a

representative for the Mets.

And it sounds like they

can't get people to do the

home run derby.

And so Pete Alonzo said he'd

only do it if he was an all-star.

So it sounds to me like

that's the only reason Pete

Alonzo is an all-star,

and he's the Mets representative,

because they need somebody

for the home run derby.

Now, at the end of the day,

this all changes.

We know...

About, what, 10,

15 games are going to get

added to this because

people either can't play

because they pitch Sunday or Sunday,

and then you're going to have injuries.

The reason why I think

Lindor is going to be there

is Mookie's hurt,

and Mookie's not going to be there.

So who's going to replace

him at shortstop?

Lindor.

So, I mean, we're listening.

That's where we differ.

Who do you got?

I got Mason Wynn.

interesting probably the

best and again you said but

you when you said defense

doesn't really necessarily

get factored in he's

hitting over 280 he's

probably maybe the best

defensive shortstop in the

national league right now he's a rookie

And he's been playing really well.

He's hitting the ball.

He's getting on base, stealing a few bags.

I thought that him and my

two were Wynn and Terang

because I didn't go too in-depth because,

like you said,

I know that when it comes to pitching,

I know that there's going

to be players that will get swapped in.

The bigger one for me was Duran.

I really thought Duran

should have got the start.

Yeah, I think as fans, we screwed him.

I mean,

the fact that he was in the top 20

after the first ballot came

out really just ruined it.

Well,

here's the other one that I was

thinking when looking at it.

Trey Turner, is he an all-star?

Yes.

He's played in 51 games.

Yep.

Wins played in 82.

Terangs played in 87.

Lindor's played in at least 75,

if not more than that,

without looking at it quick.

I voted Lindor every single time I voted.

I mean,

I just don't see... If you're going

to have fans vote,

something has to come into

effect unless some... There

has to be some sort of level.

Yes,

he's played in more than probably 60%

of the games,

but it was just tough to see

Trey Turner getting the

start and only playing 51 games.

Not saying he's not worthy,

but in terms of the game itself,

some of these guys...

getting a start.

And then to me,

how much does it really matter?

Because Ellie Della Cruz

could have gotten the start too.

It's another one too you could think of.

But then in my article,

I kind of was writing about

Della Cruz is probably

going to come in the tail end of the game,

right?

He's going to finish the game out.

So what a perfect storybook for him to,

you know, walk, get a single,

no one on in front of him, steals second,

steals third,

and then manufactures his own run.

you know what I mean?

Sack fly ground out, whatever it is,

that's what he's been doing for the reds.

So that's, you know,

Mason wind belongs there.

I don't think the start by any means,

I think Della Cruz, you know,

just because of hype and

everything that was the big

one other than the, the Duran,

in my opinion, because the pitching,

I didn't necessarily worry

too much about just simply do the fact of,

like you said,

there's going to be a lot

of guys that just aren't

going to go either.

They,

have an injury or they just pitched.

So it's more the position players,

but the ones you brought up

for pitching make a total

lot of sense to me in regards to,

and they were in my head too.

Do they belong?

This guy's better.

Kim Kimbrell,

especially just due to the

fact of remembering back

how we were concerned with him.

And now he's been kind of

back to shades of who he

was back when he was really lights out.

One of the top closers in the game.

Yeah, and I got one more.

Okay.

The last one I'm surprised about,

it's not really a snub.

It's just I'm surprised that

David Fry got the DH nod

for the AL behind Alvarez

over Brent Rooker.

I mean, David Fry's been fantastic.

He's been a key cog for the

Cleveland Guardians,

but I thought Rooker.

How much of that comes into

the team's records?

Right.

At the end of the day,

once they said Mason Miller

is getting the Oakland A's representative,

then it's got to be, that's it.

That's their lone guy.

He's been on fire the past 15 days.

So I have a question for you, though,

since we're in the all-star

game competition.

Pick your starter for each side.

National League.

Oh, Nola got snubbed,

but that's not who I would have started.

It's between Wheeler.

It's between Wheeler, Shota, and Skeens.

And I'm trying to keep the

idea of Wheelers on a team

that is in first place.

Shota and Skeens are both rookies.

If we're talking Shota's

April versus his May and June,

I would have leaned Shota

over Skeens just because of

coming from overseas.

But I would really,

for the game and for Pittsburgh,

and just because he hasn't faltered,

I would probably give it to Skeens.

He won't get it probably

just due to the fact that

he'll probably follow

I would assume Wheeler,

but I would not bat an eye

if they chose to go with

Skeens in the National League.

Either of your other two.

Skeens I had.

The other two I did not even have,

isn't my thought.

Okay.

And Scooble's my guy in the

American League,

just because I'm a fan like

you are of him,

and there's no one really else.

Colton Burns is about it.

Yeah,

and I guess I just – I think Skeens

has done better with less.

Tanner Houck has played

himself out of the American League job.

Unfortunately, yes.

But I think he played out of it.

The National League, I had Skeens,

but then I had three other ones.

Okay.

I had Tyler Glass now just

because of the Dodgers hype

and all of that.

But then the other two were

in Atlanta where you could go Chris Sale.

But the big one is,

why not Reynaldo Lopez?

He's been so surprising.

He has the best ERA in baseball.

Realistically, if you look at the numbers,

one of the best pitchers in

baseball hasn't wavered.

No.

And so, realistically,

you reward that to the guy

who's been the best pitcher

for the first half.

Who deserves it.

Correct.

Yeah.

Right.

So, I think it would be Lopez.

But I think, realistically,

for the eyes and for the

glamour of the game,

you have to go Skeens.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think Skeens versus Skubal

to start the All-Star game

would be a fun one.

Do you think they'd do it?

I think if they do,

you're only getting one

inning out of him.

Yeah, no, no, I agree with that.

The question also becomes, too,

is he going?

Because he's another one.

I think he lines up to pitch this weekend.

Does he pitch Saturday?

He might be.

I don't know.

They keep bumping him.

Every time, like, they, like,

sometimes save him for home games.

Which is, yeah, yeah.

so here's here's back to the

lopez like because I agree

wholeheartedly and honestly

when thinking about it I

didn't really consider him

but and this is stupid but

how often have you seen a

number four or five star to

get the start I don't it's

similar to the rooker you

know the ace record

Does he deserve to be there?

Sure.

But if Mason Miller was left

out and he's the lone representative,

then you get people screaming about that.

Rightfully,

they both belong there because

of what they've done for their teams.

But their record holds them back.

And that's where I was

thinking about Lopez.

He was number five to start the year.

How much does that come into

play when it shouldn't at all?

But it kept me from talking about him.

Yeah.

He popped into my head right

away with the ERA.

Yeah, yeah.

He's been – Chicago's probably like,

you son of a bitch.

Yeah, yeah.

But when you have – I mean, I wonder,

it would be interesting to

talk or hear more about the

psyche of a major league

pitcher when you know what

you have around you and you

don't have to be perfect.

And you can just pitch, right?

Yep.

If you have all the talent in the world,

but you're pressing,

and you're trying to be perfect, you know,

an inch here, an inch there,

ball or strike,

makes a difference in the world,

and then it just kind of snowballs on you,

you know what I mean?

And if you get behind early, one, two runs,

you try to tighten down now

because you don't think

your team can score more than that.

Yeah.

So it's definitely going to

be interesting to see what

happens over the next,

probably the next...

Three, four days,

you'll see some new additions,

some people bowing out.

I get the bowing out as a

pitcher if you've just

thrown because it's

different than the Pro Bowl, right?

Pro Bowl injury, sure, I get it.

But if you're voted in the

Pro Bowl and you just don't

go because you want to be

done with football, I'm sorry.

That to me is something that

you should go or something.

Baseball is a little

different for pitchers.

or if you're injured because

they have half their season left.

So it'll be very interesting.

I would love to see Skeens get the start.

And the question is,

if he goes out and gets one, two, three,

do they pull and let him go

to second inning?

No, Pittsburgh won't let him.

They're already talking about it.

Nevermind.

That's right.

We'll get to it later,

but they're already talking about it.

And he was limited on him now.

So,

Would they be doing that if

they were climbing up the

leaderboard in the Central?

Actually, probably.

Probably just because

they're so keen on future.

Didn't Washington do it with Strasburg?

Didn't they shut them down

even though they were still in the race?

I think so.

I just can't recall.

That's a name from the past

that seems like it wasn't that long ago,

but it's a long time ago.

Now.

Five years ago.

Yep.

Okay,

any other snubs or anything else you

want to talk about with the

All-Star game?

No.

I think it'll be interesting.

It's going to have a different feel to it,

I think,

just because there's some younger stars.

There's a lot of injuries this year,

a lot of the names you are

used to seeing that won't be there.

But I think it's funny and

interesting if that holds

true about Alonzo.

if the home run Derby holds

that much weight and you

can't get guys to do it,

then you have to redo the

Derby a different way,

some sort of incentive

because you can't have

someone hold hostage and

keep somebody else out of the game.

That's not right.

And if that comes to be true

statement and that's

actually what happened,

then shame on baseball.

All right.

So now the all-star game is covered,

done with.

Who are your hot picks?

in cold teams going into

this all-star break right

now that you'd like to talk

about you want me to do one

then you do one and we'll

go back yeah sure all right

yeah that works the first

one I'll start with is the

cooler of the two hot teams

I have and I'll start with

baltimore orioles uh last

week four and two they've

been eight and three since

june 26th and they're right

back in the american league

east lead and they're

building that lead with the

yankees struggles

So now we're full throttle

with the Orioles,

and now we're seeing the

team that they should have

been all year long and

holding that division lead.

And it's really been the pitching.

I mean, over that course, that span,

you've got Grace Rodriguez,

3-0 and three starts, a .233 ERA,

an under a one whip, and a 9.3K per nine.

They really need him to step

up with the losses they've

had in Braddish and Means.

Yep.

Coon Burns.

Two starts, 1-0, 208 ERA,

just above a one whip and a

7.6K per nine.

And the other one that's

really stepped up is Albert Suarez.

Two starts, he's 2-0.

Yep.

150 ERA, a 0-6-7 whip, and a 6K per nine.

And then the lineup is just clicking.

265 average combined, 79 OPS,

17 home runs in the span.

51 runs scored, 48 RBIs,

and a 123 weighted runs created plus.

The lineup is just – I mean,

you expect it with all those names,

but now it seems like

they're all doing it at the same time.

Yeah.

And it's guys, you know,

I've seen people saying,

I want Santander gone or Mullins.

Those are guys you could

have talked about as snubs

for the All-Star game too.

Yeah.

And, I mean,

Orioles fans are rightfully

pissed about the All-Star

game where they only have

three representatives.

They should have more.

Yep.

Correct.

Agreed.

All right.

So who's your hot team?

So I'll do,

I'll follow suit and do my colder of the,

my two in mind,

San Diego Padres and offensively,

they are third in the

national league over the

last 15 days with 70 runs scored.

They've got 17 home runs and

they're hitting two 78 as a team.

Now we were just talking

about them as a team and,

and their representatives

for the all-star game and

the outfield being mainly there.

And for me, their last 15 days,

and I'm sorry, I've got it all pull,

had it all pulled up,

but their team is being led by Machado.

It's got five home runs, 12 RBIs, Kyle,

I guess.

Yeah.

I butchered that.

Sorry about that.

The catcher there.

He's only played nine games,

but he's got four home runs

in 13 RBIs hitting three 33

pro far still hitting just under 300.

Jackson Merrill has 11 RBIs

and two home runs and is hitting two 86.

Of course, Luis Reyes to 92 and,

And the guy that has been

playing kind of filling in

for Bogart's Donovan Solano hitting 326,

only six RBIs, 15 hits,

five doubles and seven runs scored.

Machado has just been

leading that team with 10 runs scored.

And then of course you got

Jake Cronenworth who gets

on base and scores when he does,

but the team just seems to be doing well.

This is without Bogart's.

And without Tatis right now.

Yep.

Hitting-wise.

Pitching, on the other hand.

You didn't even name Profar.

You didn't even mention Profar.

Yeah, I did.

I mentioned Profar just

hitting just under 300.

I mean, he's just been him,

which I put him out there

for a lot of teams to grab, to play.

But I also thought he was

going to be the odd man out

for the Padres this year.

So the last 15 days,

their pitching staff as a whole,

they've got Michael King with two wins,

ERA 1.59 in two starts.

They've got Cease who's one and two.

They haven't really looked

good as a starting rotation as a whole,

but when you look at their

team pitching stats as a whole,

It's been really,

truly the offense has been

carrying them with those

runs scored because pitching stats-wise,

ERA, where'd they go?

Well, that didn't work for me.

Headed up.

They're middle of the road.

They're 11th, actually, in ERA at a 4-5-8,

but they're 8-4.

Their pitching stats,

8-4 over the last 15 games.

They're not really lighting it on fire.

They've got three saves and

five save opportunities.

It's really been their run scored.

They've given up 55 and they've scored.

They've got a differential of 16 right now,

which has helped them offensively.

So the Padres are a team and

I brought them up simply

because the rest of that

division seems to be underperforming.

And the National League as a whole,

after you've got the division leaders,

the wild cards up for grabs,

which we'll talk about later.

So who's your hot team?

The Boston Red Sox.

And it's because, I mean,

you could talk about last week.

Yeah, they went 5-1,

but swept the Marlins.

You've got to take care of the bad teams.

Going to the Bronx against

one of the best teams in baseball.

Granted, since June 15th,

they haven't been.

They're what, 5-15, something like that?

And you took two or three from them.

And then I'm including the

series finale against the

Padres where they've been

6-1 in their last seven.

And the lineup combined, hitting 242,

725 OPS, 11 home runs, 36 RB dies,

37 runs scored.

And it's always something about that team.

It's somebody struggles,

somebody picks the other guy up.

So for the longest time for the season,

Durant was one of the hottest players,

tarried the Red Sox for a little while.

He's cold.

Devers in the last seven games,

393 average with a 1.378 OPS,

four home runs, eight runs scored,

12 RBIs.

Somebody's coming in and

picking somebody up.

And I'm going to rant as a

Red Sox fan for a minute

that I want this name to be

talked about more,

and that is Sedan Rafaela.

This guy, he's heating up.

He's hitting .222 with a .917 OPS,

three home runs, four runs scored,

nine RBIs.

Now, my biggest gripe that I have,

and I'm pulling it out as I

continue to talk about him,

is let's put some goddamn

respect on him for Rookie of the Year.

I mean, American League was Luis Gil,

Mason Miller is up there, I get it.

But what he is doing,

let's just – for instance,

I crunched some numbers

today and went through all of his stuff.

Yeah.

As far as rookies are concerned,

he ranks fourth in doubles,

third in triples, third in home runs,

first in RBIs, second in runs scored,

and fourth in stolen bases

among all rookies.

And that's including the National League.

But then you go in,

and I'm trying to get into

my app right now, but the last I saw,

he was fifth for American

League Rookie of the Year voting,

and it was plus 1,200.

That is ridiculous that that's the odds.

Who's number one?

It was Luis Gil last I saw.

I'm trying to find it right now.

Which he's been falling a little bit,

which we discussed in the

All-Star voting.

Bounced back last night.

So here it is.

American League,

it's Wyatt Langford right now.

Who missed, what, two weeks,

if not a couple more?

At least.

Yep.

Luis Hill's second, Colton Couser's third.

And Colton Couser, realistically, though,

he had, what,

that one series against the

Red Sox that really took off for him.

Yeah, beginning of the year, yep.

He's been good, but, I mean,

the fourth one's William Abreu,

which I like Abreu, big fan of him.

Yeah.

Raphael is better.

Raphael's better than the team in RBIs.

I mean, the Wyatt Langford one I get,

But to have him fifth,

and he's plus 800 right now.

What about Rafael's ability to move?

That's the thing.

You know what I mean, positions-wise?

Let's not even talk about

shortstop and center field.

The fact that it's both

positions at gold glove caliber.

Yeah.

That's the thing.

Somebody actually tweeted this out today.

I didn't fact check it, so if I'm wrong,

crucify me on Twitter.

Fine.

But over his first 390 at-bats,

compared to Mookie Betts,

Red Sox fans are still

pissed about the trade.

Rafael has 13 home runs.

Mookie has 10.

Rafael has 55 RBIs.

Mookie had 43.

Both of them had 14 stolen bases.

That's over the course of

their first 390 career big

league at-bats.

They're not a very different build either.

If you look at them by eye,

not very different.

Size, speed...

Athletic ability alone.

They're baseball players.

They're just athletes.

The other thing about the

Red Sox is the rotation back.

In this stretch,

the rotation combined is

4-0 with a 140 ERA, an under one whip,

and a 7.9K per night.

Cutter Crawford out-dueled

Luis Gil last night.

Houck didn't look right

after the rain delay the other day.

He looked good to start the game.

And think about what they're doing.

Those stats also include Josh Wankowski,

who came out of nowhere again.

Bayo.

Now, again,

we can talk about they faced the Marlins.

Fine.

Are those elevated?

You face the Padres,

who had spanked you for two days,

and you looked good in that

game on Sunday.

And it also includes the

three-game against the Yankees.

And the thing I like about

this team is a couple years ago,

they're not winning a game like Friday.

That game, down 3-1, it's over.

If they lose on Saturday and that was 14-4,

that team would have

shifted in on Saturday.

It was like it never even happened.

It was a new day.

And that's what this team is doing.

And they... I hate to say

they're really... I said, what,

third or fourth in my

prediction for the season?

They're really making me

think they are a playoff team.

Which...

We can get into a little later,

but I'm not disagreeing with you one bit.

And they have been,

it was nice to see Rafi

being Rafi against the Yankees.

There's nothing better on the big,

big stage in New York and just, you know,

going in there and having

two home runs and just

being himself on a Sunday night game.

Well, two on Sunday,

but three in the series.

Yeah.

Three in the series, two on Sunday,

which the only way it would

have been better if they

were both off Garrett Cole.

Yeah, and Rafael had two.

Yeah.

Yep,

they are definitely – the pitching had

held them together, and then it was,

you know,

Duran and O'Neal in spots when

he was healthy, and now Devers is hitting,

Rafael is hitting.

They're all picking each other up.

And what about David Hamilton?

What do you think of him –

on that team and in the role

he's been playing and, you know,

on the base paths.

So I actually wrote an

article probably three

weeks ago now where I literally said,

this is one healthy,

this needs to be your starting lineup.

And I have him at second base.

Yep.

I had, I think I had, so cost is healthy.

First Debra's third short was Rafaela.

Second,

I put Hamilton because I love the

idea of the lineup,

whether you put Hamilton eight or two,

The idea of having Hamilton, Rafaela,

Duran, or Rafaela, Duran, Hamilton.

It changes your whole lineup.

The reason why I like

Hamilton more in the eight

spot is you could have Hamilton, Rafaela,

Duran.

Bases low, you go right to Abreu, Devers,

O'Neal, Wong, Gosses.

Now you're talking possibly two runs,

realistically,

if they all can get on and

cause havoc on the base paths.

So I haven't been paying as

close attention to the injured list.

Is story done for the year?

That was the last I saw.

So no opportunity to come

back and swing a bat.

Okay.

I've also said then at that point,

why don't we see, you know,

you could see Nick York.

He's at AAA.

Yeah.

And he's been hitting.

He's been doing well.

You could take a chance and see.

I mean,

I think that you're only going to

see that if we get an

injury to somebody like Hamilton.

Yeah.

I mean,

I said it on Friday when that

three-run inning for the

Yankees happened when

Valdez had that double play

and he threw it away from Rafaela.

And I literally sat here

watching the game and I said,

get him to AAA and call York up.

What's the worst that's going to happen?

Yeah.

No, I agree.

So, yeah, the Red Sox,

I didn't mean to derail

there and start to kind of

take over some of that conversation.

But the Red Sox, definitely,

I agree with them.

And I'm glad I focused a

little bit more nationally

heavy because the Red Sox

would have definitely been

a team we overlapped with.

Anything else to mention

about the Red Sox?

No.

I mean,

the other names that tripped in

this week were O'Neal and Yoshida.

I mean, you can't forget that.

game-tying home run on the

bottom of the ninth off Clay Holmes,

who all start Clay Holmes.

And Cutter,

giving him those extra-day starts.

He's made two starts lately.

He's 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA

just above a .50 whip and a

7.6K per nine.

So he seems like he might be

back in that extra-day rest helped.

No, definitely.

Definitely the Red Sox are a

team that I'm interested in

seeing what they do at the

deadline because there's a

lot of scuttle about can

they win it all this year?

What's their level of

interest in just being a, you know,

getting into the playoffs

versus setting themselves

up for next year's run or the year after.

So with that being said,

I'll stay in the American League,

but I'm going to the Central.

And I'm going...

focused on the minnesota

twins they're eight and

four in the last 15 days

but what stood out to me

was their batting average

over the last 15 days is

309 as a team the next

closest 271 that's 28 no 38

points higher than the

second place team with a

batting average runs scored

And then the next, the Astros have 74,

but 82 runs scored.

They've got 17 home runs, 80 RBIs,

and the 308 average just

really stood out to me with that team.

And it's been done with a

lot of different players.

Royce Lewis did come back,

back on the injured list,

but the rest of that team

has been doing just fine.

hitting the ball.

Buxton is one of those guys

that I don't know if we'll ever see it,

but what could he do in a full season?

Healthy.

Yeah.

But right now,

a guy that I had mentioned

early on this year before

the Cubs traded for Michael

Bush was Jose Miranda to

come over and play first or

third in the last 15 days.

He's hitting five 79 with 11 runs scored.

six doubles, a home run, 13 RBIs,

three walks, and only two strikeouts.

Buxton's hitting 432 with four home runs.

Then you've got Carlos Correa,

who's hitting 316 with three home runs,

nine RBIs.

Brooks Lee,

who's only played in five games, mind you,

but he's hitting 474 with a home run,

six RBIs.

Jeffers,

The catcher's doing well.

Royce Lewis in six games.

Unfortunately, I think he's been hampered.

He's only hitting 130.

But he's one of your top guys.

They had Austin Martin up for a while.

He was struggling as well,

hitting just 200.

But the rest of this group,

Vasquez included,

Carlos Vasquez and Jeffers,

both of those guys have

split the games over the last 12, 6-6.

Two home runs apiece.

Five RBIs for Vasquez.

eight for Jeffers.

So they're pitching in

similar to what you were

talking about with the Red Sox.

The Minnesota Twins

offensively have definitely

been playing together as a team.

Now pitching, on the other hand,

they're sixth in the league,

in the American League, with a 4.07 ERA.

But the biggest difference

here is they have only allowed

49 earned runs and scored 82.

That's a 33 run differential.

So it doesn't matter

necessarily how your pitching is doing.

If you're playing up to that

level and the twins top pitcher in the,

the last 15 days, really, to be honest,

has been a group, but, um,

Duran has been their top reliever.

He's pitched well.

Lopez has struggled.

I'm sorry.

My screen's kind of

glitching on me from my notes.

Joe Ryan's got the 4.15 ERA.

He's got three starts, only one win.

But the guy that I like the most,

and he doesn't have the

best stats in kind of

rooting form because he was

jockeyed up and down between AAA,

is Simeon Woods-Richardson.

Three starts, one win, 17 innings,

4.24 ERA.

So as a group,

the starters haven't

necessarily lit the world on fire.

I guess their best

statistically starter right

today in the last 15 days

has been Bailey Ober.

Starts, one win,

and a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings.

But overall, for me,

it was their offense that

and how big of a difference

they're all hitting the

ball in the run differential.

Their bullpen's been great.

Uh,

Johan Duran in my eyes is one of the up

and coming closers that I'm

really excited to watch.

He'd started the year on the, uh, IL,

but it's come back strong.

So I think this is a team that'll be,

we'll talk about it later.

We'll be active at the

deadline for perhaps the

starting pitcher.

So who's your cold team?

My cold team is the team

that just lost to the Red

Sox is the New York Yankees.

They continue to go the wrong way,

and it's on the pitching

side with a 4.42 ERA in

their last six and a 2.3

home run per nine.

Luis Hill is tough.

I crunched the numbers from

his last two starts over

the last six games for the

Yankees because he's made two starts.

He lost both with a 4.22 ERA,

but a lot of that was bad.

picks is better because of

his start against the Red Sox,

where he went six and two-thirds,

gave up four hits, gave up an iron run,

didn't allow a walk and struck out nine.

Garrett Cole, though, I mean,

he pitched against the Red

Sox on Saturday.

After that start,

he went four and a third.

His ERA in that start

technically was an 8.31.

Stroman, one start this week,

five iron runs and five innings pitched.

The lineup hasn't helped.

You've got the names like Volpe,

who was hitting 120 this

last week in six games, a .354 OPS,

doesn't have a bomb, one run scored,

four RBIs.

Gleyber Torres,

who got hurt in that game on Friday.

I don't remember if he played Sunday.

I know he was out Saturday.

Four games, a .154 average, a .368 OPS,

didn't have a home run,

had one run scored and one RBI,

and the last one was Juan Soto.

In six games, he's hitting a buck 82.

His OPS is up.

It's 697.

A home run, two runs scored, and two RBIs.

That name that I did not

expect to see on the list

when I went through the... No.

...struggling for that team.

It had been Verdugo.

Verdugo had a decent week.

I mean,

I won't say a great week because

realistically, he had, what,

that really one home run in

that 14-4 game,

which I go back to why wasn't he drilled,

but...

And then Devers just copied

him and did the same thing

around the bases on Saturday.

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

I mean,

it's fun to watch because of who it is.

Right.

But they have not looked themselves,

which is fine.

The question becomes,

are they going to be in

jeopardy of falling out of

this and open the door for the Red Sox,

take a spot,

and then maybe even the

Astros because the Astros are coming.

So the Astros are a team I

want to talk about once we

get in a minute about a

bold prediction that is interesting,

and we'll get to that.

But anything else with the

Yankees that stood out to you?

No, just they didn't.

Aside from that 14-4 game, Ben Rice,

three home runs,

that was fun to see because

he's from Massachusetts.

But, I mean, they just don't look right.

No.

It could be the free fall.

Yep,

it's certainly going to be interesting

to see what ends up

happening in the Bronx,

and especially with the Red

Sox being where they were.

I don't think anyone expected,

I think everyone expected

perhaps the Blue Jays to be

where the Red Sox are right now,

and they're not.

So, you know, it's interesting.

They're definitely a cold team.

I think we talked about it previously,

about Boone's comments,

about sweeping the Red Sox.

or taking the series at the

very least in the Bronx and

then come out and get –

they only had that one good game.

So for my cold team,

my cold team has probably

been the cold team most of

the year for me personally.

And it came down between the

Cubs and the Reds.

And –

neither have lived up and I

cover them both.

Uh, there's other teams that are cold,

but none that you really

kind of had higher hopes for, I guess,

maybe perhaps the diamond backs,

but they're heating up a

little bit and perhaps the giants,

but really for the reds, the last 15 days,

their batting average is two 16 as a team,

not good.

Their runs scored 66,

their runs allowed 66.

is 56.

So a 10-run differential in

regards to what they're

scoring versus what they're giving up.

But only 52 of those are earned.

So hitting for the actual

Reds team themselves has

been atrocious outside of Eli De La Cruz.

And with that said,

Eli De La Cruz is not

necessarily lighting the

world on fire either.

He's hitting 269.

Their best hitter through

this stretch has been Jonathan India,

who's hitting .388.

But their RBI leader is Steer,

who's got .12.

De La Cruz has only got .7.

Yes, he's got the .67 with tonight's game,

stolen bases.

But he's scoring runs.

But he's got five walks and 18 strikeouts.

Steer, 13 strikeouts.

Fairchild, who just went on the IL, .14.

Novelli Marte hitting 150

with 14 strikeouts, one walk.

Will Benson, 14 strikeouts.

Jameer Candelario, 12 strikeouts.

So if you've got a starting

pitcher in fantasy baseball

and he faces the Reds at

any point this week, start him.

You know he's going to get

some Ks at the very least

and they're not scoring a

whole lot of runs.

On the flip side, which stinks...

If you put TJ Friedel,

you put Matt McClain,

and you get some more support there,

their pitching has not been bad.

Two starts, Andrew Abbott, two wins,

2.38 ERA in 11 innings.

Now he's got 10 walks, but he's still,

you know, that's almost a walk per inning,

which isn't great.

Carson Spires, 2-1,

4.3 ERA in three starts.

Graham Ashcroft just got sent down.

He was killing them with his six ERA.

Frankie Montaz, two starts,

one and one with a 2.45 ERA.

Then you've got Hunter Green,

who's 0-2 in 15 innings with a 4.02.

Nick Martinez has pitched in relief.

He's got a 3.65 or 6.8.

They've got the pitching has been there.

They've had some blow-up innings.

Fernando Cruz in 3.2 has

given up six earned runs as a reliever,

and he was kind of a setup guy.

But for me,

with Hunter Green pitching the

way he has been,

the four ERA is right

around where he hovers anyway.

Diaz has been lights out,

hasn't won a game, saved two games,

pitched in five games, five innings,

hasn't given up an earned run.

The...

Actually, he – no, sorry,

that was a freeze there.

Frankie Montaz and Abbott,

for a cold team having two starters,

four starts,

and both of them being under

two and a half,

you'd like to think that

they'd get better than

three and one out of that.

Yeah.

But they just can't score any runs,

and it's been very

defeating because you have –

probably one of the more

electrifying players in

baseball right now, young players.

He's still got some growing to do,

you know, tone down on the strikeouts,

but when he gets on base,

he manufactures runs.

Yep.

14 hits, 11 runs, just like tonight.

He's, he's, he's electric.

And Spencer steer is

starting to come back with a two 86.

It's going to be very

interesting to see what

these reds do because they

Matt McLean is scheduled to

come back sometime, hopefully August.

And where do you play him?

DH is my guess,

with India playing decent at second,

and Marte is locked in at third.

This team's just underperforming,

and that's why I have them

as my cold team,

because the rest of them don't have,

in my eyes, the offensive talent

that this group has,

and they're getting the

pitching from some of their key guys.

They're just not getting any run support.

Those games when you give up four runs,

they're not scoring five.

So the Reds were my cold team.

The Cubs,

I just want to leave out of it

because I'll address them

when we get back after this break.

But anything else you'd like

to add before?

Perfect.

So...

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All right, CJ, we've covered.

hot and cold we've covered

the all-star game there's

still some stuff we want to

cover and try to get

through it kind of quick um

I want to save I want to

save the wild card update

because I think there's

some things that are more

relevant right now um let's

let's talk about paul

skeens and I'll get back to

the wild card probably to close

Paul Skeens we talked about in regards to,

you know,

the potential of him starting

the all-star game for the

National League.

Why don't you talk to us

about his current stats and

also the position we're

talking about with the Pirates right now?

So this season, since he got called up,

he's made 10 starts.

He's 5-0, has not suffered a loss.

I actually want to look up

on going over these what his –

what the Pirates record is

when he pitches.

Because that's been a big

thing to me lately is what the team does.

Yeah.

But going over his stats even more,

he's got a 212 ERA, a 2.78 FIP,

just above a one whip.

A 1.8 walk per nine, which is amazing.

An 11.8 K per nine.

And when he pitches,

the Pirates are seven and three.

Excuse me.

So his last start this past

week came against the Mets.

He went seven innings,

gave up two run runs, four hits,

two walks, and eight Ks.

I guess the one thing that I

actually looked at today

and was amazed – I was amazed by,

two of the best teams in

the National League.

We can talk about – so he

hasn't faced the Phillies yet,

but the three top teams are the Phillies,

Dodgers, and Braves.

And he's faced the Braves

and he's faced the Dodgers.

Combined against them,

he's 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA, a 1.36 whip,

17 strikeouts, and 11 innings pitched.

That, to me,

is why he starts the All-Star

game because he's faced

some of the big names on

the National League side,

and he pitched well against both of them.

Let him face the cream of

the crop in the American

League and see what he does

and showcase the arm.

Who's –

We talked about Strasburg earlier,

but is there another

pitcher that comes to mind

with this kind of hype and

this kind of impact so soon

that you can think of?

Strasburg, as far as pitcher?

Yeah.

Not really.

I couldn't think of one

earlier when I was thinking about it.

I mean, Kerry would, but that, again,

is more of just my –

Recency biased.

I've watched him through his whole career.

Um, he was good when he was young,

but like, he's a number, you know,

top pick for the pirates last year,

plowed through the minor

leagues and basically was on our,

you know, a pitch count.

And it appears from what

you've said earlier,

that given where they are

in the standings and

current makeup of the

roster now with some injuries, uh,

that he might be going back

regardless on a pitch count,

which could kind of stymie his stats.

Yeah, really,

it's like bugging me right now.

I'm trying to think of who else.

So I'm watching the Reds game.

Is there a Reds pitcher that was?

And there wasn't.

No,

I can't even remember the last time

they had a top.

I mean, Hunter Green,

just because of the way he

pitched and the speed and the velocity.

But I couldn't think.

DeGrom kind of came out of nowhere.

So did Syndergaard.

I guess the only thing I

could think of with it was

Otani when he came over.

Yeah.

And again,

that's apples and oranges

because he's been injured

so often and was focused on hitting.

But, yeah, Skeens is a special talent,

and I sure do hope he gets

the star of the All-Stars.

So, sorry.

Sorry for interfering there.

No, you're good.

So,

you had actually mentioned right into

it the state of the Pirates,

and this is where it feeds

right into how long is he going?

What are they going to do?

Because they just lost their

other prospect,

who are not really a prospect,

but they're on a big arm.

Derrick Jones is now down

and won't throw for two

weeks with a grade two latch string.

In the season, 5-6 with a 3.56 ERA,

a 3.75 BIP, a 1.11 WIP, 2.7 walk per nine,

and 9.7 K per nine.

It was like watching those

two back-to-back was the

future of the Pirates.

And it still is,

but it's tough right now

that Jared Jones is going

to go down because now the

Pirates are going to

internally have

conversations about do we

have schemes get shut down

at a certain point,

especially if they're not in it.

I think they have the

question no matter what,

even if they are in it.

But if they're not in it,

it definitely is going to

be the conversation.

If you shut Skeens down,

do you limit Jones?

Potentially, you know,

outside of the Dodgers,

if you talk about pitching in the Braves,

I guess,

and perhaps the Phillies with

Wheeler and Nola.

But when you talk youth and up and coming,

Jones and skeins have got to be there with,

in the conversation of the

top four tandems in the national league,

at least if not, you know,

top six and all baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Realistically with what,

if you put them on the Orioles,

put skeins and Jones on the Orioles.

You know, I mean,

just think about what their

run support a little bit different.

defensively, you know,

I don't like to do that

because it's not fair.

Cause you can do that with a

bunch of pitchers,

but the way these guys have

pitched dominating for Pittsburgh,

their wins, perhaps some of the runs,

some of this stuff could be different,

but when you're mentioning

schemes getting shut down

in Jones with a lat strain,

and let's say it is two

weeks before he starts throwing again,

we're talking maybe three with a,

three and a half weeks until

we see him after a rehab

start yeah back with the

pirates so you're talking

august if they're out of it

in august and you're

already talking about

skeins shouldn't jones be

in the same type of

conversation if you're that

worried yep yeah I mean

which sucks because he's

been electric I almost

I almost wonder if that's

part of why they're pushing Skeens back.

I know I talked about maybe

it's like to have home

games and get the money in

and stuff like that.

But I guess with Cutter Crawford,

the Red Sox are doing it with him.

And some Pirates are doing

it with Skeens and pushing him back.

So maybe they don't shut him down.

And maybe they just keep

pushing starts where he

gets more days rest.

And who cares if it lines up at home?

It's a win-win.

maybe they're doing it right

now because they are kind

of still in the

conversation for a playoff spot.

Yeah.

As,

as things progress and they fall out of

it, we may not see that.

We may see him get shut down,

but that's my personal

opinion is I think as long

as they're within that,

I guess we'll say seven

game window for the wildcard spot.

Um, I think they're,

gonna still try to go for it

because having the future

schemes and Jones even with

Jones being hurt and

getting to the postseason

now getting that experience

if they can do it why not

go for it yeah yeah because

I mean they do have some

interesting pieces that

could be you know to build

but they have some they

have some definite youth

there and some things to be

excited about but that's

just a conversation it'll

be I'll be very interested

to see what the Pirates do

over the next month with

schemes when Jones comes back, you know,

how do they handle that?

That'll,

that'll be very interesting to me

because I'm already excited

to see their future.

And this year is not even over yet.

And that's,

I shouldn't be excited for that,

but the way they've pitched his, you know,

definitely,

they're the two guys for Pittsburgh.

If they're playing and say

the Cubs aren't on,

or even if the Cubs and Reds are on,

I'm still swapping back.

And sometimes I've got, you know,

multiple screens up and

they're the ones leading so

I can see them pitch.

Yeah.

Paul Skeen's starting this

must watch TV no matter what.

I mean,

I find myself he's as a Red Sox

Tigers fan.

Usually I'll have Red Sox, big TV, Tigers,

old TV,

but if Skeen's is pitching and

Tigers get bumped.

Yeah.

Maybe that's the school.

But it might have to do with

the fact that they're not

that great this year.

I've been nice.

I've left you alone because, unfortunately,

my Cubs have been actually worse.

So I really don't have a leg to stand on.

So with that said, that kind of leads in,

and we've discussed it a little bit.

Let's talk about the NL

wildcard update and where things stand.

I talked about this, what, two weeks ago,

last week?

But I was really,

with you covering the National League,

I was hoping after we had talked,

I think before and after

the podcast last week,

planning for you to be back this week,

I saved it to have you here

to talk about it.

So right now,

as things stand entering today,

I know there's been the

Pirates played earlier against the Mets,

and the Cardinals played earlier,

and I think

a couple other games.

Reds are playing right now.

Things might have changed after I did this,

but as things stand right now,

the Cardinals,

and I included the fan graphs,

playoff percentage.

The Cardinals hold the fifth seed,

the second wildcard spot,

and they hold it by a half a game.

They have a 50.1% chance to

make the playoffs.

The Padres hold the sixth

seed in the final wildcard spot.

at a 56% chance to make the playoffs.

Diamondbacks have a 35.7, two games back.

Mets, two games back, have a 36.3%.

Giants, three and a half games back,

have a 22.9% chance.

Then we get to the teams

that we've started talking about.

The Pirates have four and a

half games back and have a 6.2% chance.

The Reds are five back with a 6.3% chance.

The Nationals are five back

with a 1.0% chance.

And finally,

the Cubs are five and a half

games back with a 6.7% chance.

They have a higher percent

of the other teams that are

above them right now.

The other teams in the Central, yes.

Yeah.

I find that interesting.

I find it interesting the

Mets are above the

Diamondbacks for the percent chance.

Yeah, but yes, and that's – to me,

the Diamondbacks are one of

those hotter teams,

and it had to do with their bats.

But I think there's some

things that are going on

that I hope next Monday

when we get together,

which we'll discuss here in a few minutes,

that we can discuss a few

more of these things,

these teams that are on the fringe,

and some of the things that

are being said.

Because some of these teams

that are on the fringe –

have some pieces that could be moved.

And I want to discuss that

with you next Monday night

during the Derby,

which we'll talk a little

bit more about that later.

But who would you say,

you said the fan graphs, I've got my two.

Who do you think that are on

the outside looking in of

the six right now,

and we'll focus on the wild card,

of the three wild card spots,

who can you see

Stepping in and let's start

with one because I think I

think the Braves Right now

I've got that locked up.

So let's focus on one.

Who do you think could

unseat either the Padres and Cardinals?

Realistically,

I think the Mets if they

keep playing the way they

have they've hit a scuffle

now They're four and six in

their last ten that

includes today's loss to

the Pirates but I like

Francisco and or Brandon Nemo and

Pitching is a question mark for me.

Severino didn't look good the other day.

The Pirates losing Jones, I think,

keeps them out of it.

And to be honest with you,

I have a strange feeling

the Brewers are not winning the Central.

I think the Cardinals catch them,

and I think the Brewers may

fall out of the playoff conversations.

The Cardinals are one of the

hottest teams in baseball

at 7-3 over the last 10,

when you look just strictly record-wise.

That's including today, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think they have a chance

to catch the Brewers.

And I think the Brewers have

been very surprised.

I mean,

we talked about them finishing at

the bottom of the division this year.

So, I mean, they still can.

I mean, they could have a Yankee slide.

And I really think

something's going to happen

where that comes.

Now they're at the point of

the trade deadline where

they can go get something,

but they lost both pieces

they got in the Colvin Burns trade.

Both of them are on the injured list now.

Guess who's coming back, though?

Guess who just started throwing live BP?

Gasser.

Devin Williams.

Oh, geez.

I know their starting

pitching is questionable.

The bullpen is a big thing.

Yeah, but you throw Devin Williams back,

and it's a back injury,

which is still just as

crucial to pitching because

of the bending and the strain,

but it was fractured.

He hasn't pitched in a long time.

So even if he does come back

in end of July, early August,

he's not going to be going

out night after night for

save opportunities.

He's going to probably get

an opportunity here.

opportunity there until we

get into september and it's

all going to depend on

where they sit in this race

but of all these teams

looking at it and knowing

the central division like I

do they're an injury away

or someone going on a cold

streak bryce terrain who we

talked about is hitting 280

something last year he hit

230 something 50 points

better at some point

Does he come back down to life?

If he does,

that means he's not getting on base.

He's not manufacturing the runs.

Christian Yelich.

He's probably got at least

one more stint on the IL coming.

Yep, that was the name I was thinking of.

So,

and Jackson Churio is going to be a

great player,

but he hasn't lived up to the hype.

You know, Contreras behind the plate,

Freddy Peralta pitching.

I mean,

if Freddy Peralta ever has to miss

a couple starts...

That slide is going to be bad.

They're 5-5 over their last 10 games.

They do have a 79-run differential,

but that's, of the division leaders,

it's 25 runs worse than the Dodgers.

The Cardinals are the team

that I can see winning that division.

But if the Brewers fall out,

who gets in other than the Mets, then,

in your opinion?

That's where we run into the

question of the Pirates get hot.

The Reds can get hot.

Those are the two.

I'm on the train of that

whole Montgomery and Snell

issue is going to drag down

those two teams in the

Giants and the Diamondbacks.

And, in fact,

I have the

Diamondbacks-Braves game on right now,

and Austin Riley just hit a bomb.

And the Diamondbacks just –

I'm not – they got hot at the right time.

And I think that's what

we're going to see this

year is we're going to see one of these –

I don't know what, seven teams.

I don't think it's going to

be the Nationals,

although I do love James

Wood being called up.

Yeah, they're a fun team to watch.

They are,

and they have a lot more bats coming.

Yep.

They definitely,

you want to talk about this, I think,

coming up either next week

or the week after.

No, it has to be next week.

The draft.

They need to get a pitcher.

Yep.

They need to address a

top-arm pitcher because

they don't have much in

their system coming up.

I mean, Gore looks good.

Mitchell Parkers look good this year.

But I just don't think they

have enough of the pieces

to make a run to get into the postseason.

I could be wrong.

They could have the

Diamondbacks run and just

shock all of us.

You know,

James Wood could be this year's

Colton Carroll.

Realistically, it could be a thing.

Yeah.

I mean, Jesus, what a fall he's had,

by the way.

Yeah.

I just don't think –

and I'm sorry to say this for you,

but I don't think the

Nationals and the Cubs

realistically have a chance, personally.

No.

So I'll get to that, the Cubs,

here in a minute.

So you've got the Mets getting in,

and then who's the second team?

Okay,

so the Padres are going to hold strong.

The Padres will be five,

and the Mets will be six.

Okay.

Okay, so that's a shift.

So here's where I'm at right now.

And some of this all plays

out with the Diamondbacks getting hot,

six of their last ten.

They've got a plus eight run differential.

Now, the key to this, if they can get in,

and this would be the six

taking over for the Brewers.

And actually, with this said,

if the Diamondbacks were to get in,

they would actually end up

kicking out the Padres

because of the division.

I think they would actually

end up fighting each other getting out.

The only way the

Diamondbacks can return to

the playoffs is if Eugenio

Suarez can start producing.

And they have to get better pitching.

But they need Corbin Carroll

and Eugenio Suarez to start hitting.

Gurriel's doing well.

And Christian Walker needs to keep it up,

as does Kettle Marte.

And Gabriel Moreno is back

and hitting well.

So the Diamondbacks are a

team that I see that just

on the I like them better

than the Mets just because

I like their I like their

pitching slightly better.

I see their offense.

I see their offense kind of

similar in a certain sense.

And the fact that they I

don't think they're going to panic.

Because they've been there.

So my other team,

the team that I really

think that it's either

going to be the

Diamondbacks or the Padres,

I don't think you see three

teams from the one.

It's just me personally.

If the Brewers drop out,

the team I see taking over is the Reds.

I think the Reds have the ability,

when healthy,

to go on a run like the Diamondbacks.

Their run differential is plus 14.

All the other teams out of the playoffs,

other than the Diamondbacks,

are all negative.

The Mets are minus 2.

The rest are all minus 20, something.

So if De La Cruz can cut the

strikeouts back, Marte can start to hit.

McClain comes back, stays healthy,

and can hit and fill in at that DH spot.

But the key to that is TJ Friedel.

If TJ Friedel can come in

and actually stay healthy,

playing center field,

and hit 260, 270,

that team's a better team.

I mentioned,

and we'll get into this next week.

Next week, CJ and I want to be,

and we'll talk about this a

little bit more at the end.

Next week, we want to do a live show,

leave on Facebook,

during the Home Run Derby.

where we'll take all of your

questions in regards to the hot stove,

who could be moved,

who could be doing this,

who could be doing that, who stays,

who goes.

And then we'll talk a little

bit more about the wild

card after this past week as well.

But with the Reds,

I mentioned Brent Rooker.

They just traded for Austin Slater.

And quite frankly,

I think that's more for the

cash than it is the player.

And I don't know what the cash was.

I haven't said yet,

but Brent Rooker is a

right-handed power bat.

allowing Steele to, or Steer to play first,

Rooker in left.

When you want Candelario to play first,

move Steer to left, move Rooker to right,

and that let Friedel play center.

Will Benson has been,

maybe he's a good

left-handed bat that can be a platoon,

but Rooker there with his power,

putting him in the middle of that lineup,

because even Tyler

Stevenson hasn't done much.

But with the way they're pitching staff,

with Nick Lodolo coming back,

Abbott pitching well,

Spires actually pitching well,

Martinez pitching well out

of the bullpen.

You've got Diaz, who's been pitching well.

I think if they went out and get a bat,

and then I would go out and

get another reliever.

I wrote an article a few,

I don't know if it was last

week or the week before,

about Estevez from the Angels,

bringing him in to be a

setup guy for Diaz.

If you get Diaz,

Estevez and Cruz prior to

these last 15 days had been lights out.

That's the seventh, eighth and ninth guy.

And you've got Lefty and Sam

Mall and Justin Wilson have

been pitching well.

That bullpen looks a lot

different with Estevez in there,

especially with Abbott, Lodolo,

Montez and Hunter Green.

They have the talent,

not saying they would,

but they have the talent.

I could see them making a

run over and seeing the

Brewers fall out and

finishing third in that

central and the Cardinals

winning the division.

Hear me out on this because

you just mentioned Estevez to the Reds.

For the Cardinals to win the division,

I have a move that would

get them the division,

and that's Jack Flaherty returning home.

That is something I saw Jack

Flaherty go into the Red Sox,

which we will, again,

we'll get into more in

depth with more of these type moves,

but that one I like,

but I wouldn't be opposed

to them adding Estevez either.

I thought that they can grab

another bullpen arm too,

because Ryan Hensley has

never really stayed fully healthy,

but the Cardinals are a

team right now that you add

Flaherty back to that,

especially the way he's pitching.

You throw him at the bottom

of that rotation.

What the hell?

Sonny Gray is the leader.

So 4-5 and let him just go out,

pitch five innings,

get his nine strikeouts,

seven and nine strikeouts,

and give him some runs.

So those are the two teams for me.

I mean,

I can see where you're going with

the Mets.

Would I love to see if Jared

Jones was healthy and

things were a little different?

yeah because I think they

could make some moves there

there's some players there

that they could they could

go after and make some

moves one of the guys that

I know well the cubs and

pirates do have a

reputation of trading but

nico horner to play second

yep making some room there

he's he's under control to

26 uh 2026. again

we'll get into the trades

and I just want to kind of

just touch on that, that next week,

stay tuned.

If you listen to the podcast,

you follow the website,

just pay attention to our

social channels.

Cause we will be sending out

info and we'll be talking

live during the batting,

a home run Derby about some

of these pending trade moves,

where guys should fit some

bold predictions,

but also just kind of

talking baseball during the

home run Derby and kind of

the week that was.

So,

Those are the predictions for the NL.

We'll cover the AL wildcard

perhaps during the live broadcast.

We can talk openly during

some commercial breaks.

We'll have to strategically put that.

So before we get to the

prospects and the series to watch,

why don't you give us a

recap of the Phillies and

Braves that you discussed

at length last podcast?

So I actually thought the

Phillies were going to win this series,

but the Braves, are they back?

Or is this just a...

Situation of the Phillies

not having Bryce Harper and Schwarber.

The Braves took 2-3.

Yeah.

They outscored the Phillies 17-9.

Going through it Friday, pitcher's duel.

It was Nola versus Freed.

Nola out-dueled Freed.

And Freed struggled.

I mean, I don't know what that was.

Freed, Nola went six innings,

gave up five hits, three earned runs,

didn't allow a walk and struck out eight.

Freed went six, gave up 11 hits, five runs,

one walk, and four Ks.

Saturday, Swellenbacher,

who has been fun to watch as well,

very underrated.

He out-dueled Ranger Suarez,

and I'll get to Suarez in a second.

But six-inch pitch, seven hits,

one earned run, zero walks, and six Ks.

He is, to me, somebody that you,

if your team's not playing

and the Braves are on,

tune into one of his starts

because he is something to watch.

Yep.

Suarez, on the other hand,

I don't know what's going on there.

His last three starts,

he's 0-2 with a 7-4-7 ERA,

which he was a guy who was

in a conversation with Ronaldo Lopez,

who we mentioned earlier, about, you know,

he had one of the best ERAs in baseball.

He's got a 1.78 whip, 11 Ks,

and 15 and two-thirds innings.

15 and two-thirds innings

over three starts is not good.

No.

Move right along,

the name I just mentioned,

Reynaldo Lopez.

He pitched on Sunday in the finale,

six innings, gave up two hits,

didn't allow a run,

walked three and struck out six.

So the ERA continues to go down.

The big bat, and this is, you know,

we talked about when we did

our season preview, you know,

I had the Braves as my World Series team.

And we talked about it,

I think one of the last

times you were on when Acuna got hurt.

Does that hurt them as the Phillies,

the team to beat?

I don't know what it is

about this Braves team,

but Acuna gets hurt,

and they just play better.

They won the World Series

the year Acuna got hurt,

and names like Ozzie Albies

in this series hit .455 with a 1.500 OPS.

He had two home runs, five runs scored,

and four RBIs.

Marcelo Zuna,

who was announced today to be

a part of the Home Run Derby,

and actually, honestly,

he might be my pick to win

the Home Run Derby.

Yeah, of all people.

I mean, yeah.

273 average, a 1.242 OPS.

He had two home runs, two runs scored,

and five RBIs in the series.

Two bats.

I mean, Zuna's been doing it all year.

And I hate saying you lose

somebody like Acuna because I like Acuna.

Acuna's one of my favorite

players to watch.

And I cover a lot of the

Brave stuff as well.

And I mentioned it when they

got Duvall that something happens,

they at least have the depth.

And that's proven to be the thing.

They lost Acuna.

They have depth.

They lost Strider.

They have the depth.

Ronaldo Lopez has stepped up

to be a number three guy.

Realistically,

you go into a playoff series right now,

say they do get that.

They don't win the division.

They end up as the first wild card.

the four seed,

they would play the five

seed and that's the best of three.

So you'd have freed sale and

Lopez and you may not even throw Lopez.

Lopez may get, no, you could,

that's what I was,

as you're talking through

this and we talk about

what's more impressive,

their pitching depth or

their lineup depth in your opinion.

Uh,

I want to say their pitching depth

because the lineup death,

we saw it with the ads.

They made like adding Duval

late because nobody wanted them.

And he's quietly been okay for them.

He's filled in now with

obviously – actually,

I shouldn't say he's been okay.

I look up and now he's hitting.

He's got a buck 84 average.

But, you know,

you've got these guys that move.

Like they made the moves to

add in case something

happened to Acuna or somebody like that.

Whereas the pitching,

like who knew Reynaldo

Lopez was going to do what he's doing?

Who saw Schwellenbach coming

up and doing his thing?

Smith-Schauber didn't work out,

so they had to call up Schwellenbach.

And they still have another arm.

I believe he's in AA,

but he should be getting a

call up to AAA soon.

It's Hurston Waldrop,

who they just drafted the

last year or the year before.

They're a team,

when you look at what they

did in the last couple of years,

they extended their big

prospects to long-term deals.

None of those really were pitchers.

No.

You know,

we're approaching the point right

now where Max Fried is a

free agent after this year

unless they get an extension done.

Boston.

Yeah.

We've been saying that for

the longest time.

They need a left-handed arm.

Yeah.

You know,

now we're looking at this team

where a lot of their top

prospects are starting pitchers.

And they just claimed, I saw the other day,

Rosario's back,

who was an NLCS MVP for them.

Was it NLCS or World Series?

I don't remember.

He was the playoff MVP in

one of those two series for them,

and they added him back.

So, again,

another thing where they just –

that's when you ask the

question of depth.

They're bringing in the depth pieces.

From the pitching side of things,

they have the depth pieces

that are just coming up and producing.

So that's why, to me,

the fact that they can do

what they're doing,

it's the opposite of the Marlins.

The Marlins have nothing but arms,

but they can't seem to figure it out.

Just every time they get a

pitcher that's good or decent,

they get hurt.

Yeah.

I mean, Max Meyer was up here for a while.

I think he got hurt at one point.

You know, Lazaro's hurt now.

Who was their big trade piece?

Yeah.

I saw today,

Jazz Chisholm's on the block now.

Yeah.

And, well, they're Scott Knott.

Is it Tanner Scott?

Tanner Scott.

That lefty.

He's their pitching arm to go.

But Chisholm,

I can't wait for the home run derby.

Because all I've been thinking about,

4th of July on,

and now all through social media,

teams are chattering this, that,

and that.

A lot of it's noise because

people have to assume

what's going to happen.

Is it going to be a quiet

deadline like last year?

Is this going to be the most busy?

Because if you look at it,

we just discussed the National League.

There's so much.

there's not a huge gap there.

There's a lot of teams that are close.

There's some that'll take themselves out,

but it's going to be very interesting.

I'm really looking forward

to next Monday night, uh,

doing that live.

And we have three weeks till

the all strike.

I mean,

three weeks till deadline July 31st,

right?

I think it's Tuesday of that week.

So it's, so it's 21 days.

So maybe what we can do,

we can talk about it,

but maybe we do something

that Monday night,

during, uh, you know,

maybe we do an extended,

we do a pod early and then

we jump on and maybe follow

a game or two and,

and just kind of talk about

different stuff and have

the pod be a little shorter.

We can get on into that.

This is the fun time.

This is really for me outside of,

and again,

I apologize for cutting you off

with your recap, but that,

that series was a good one

and I was shocked as well,

but the Braves are just,

a team that I think don't sleep on them.

Don't sleep on the beast.

Their pitching is there.

But for me, opening day is always fun.

You know, spring training games get going.

The opening day comes.

Then there's that lull, April, May lull,

4th of July, all-star game.

Then you've got the trade

deadline and now it's on.

Yep.

Right.

Everyone's fighting for that finish.

This is when it gets really exciting.

And I can't wait for what's to come.

You know,

I'm really looking to I had I've

had a blast tonight.

Mind you, getting back,

talking about this is a

hell of a lot better than

talking about work 24 seven.

So this has been great.

I'm really looking at diving

into this and seeing what

we can do and whether

that's putting out more.

Content for you guys and

different times doing something,

you know shorting.

This is a long podcast and

we do apologize But as you can see,

there's a lot to cover a

lot of stuff going on.

So we've been working on it

the last thing The last big

thing to discuss is your

prospects for this week I

went for and I could just I

couldn't figure out the picture.

I wanted to go with yeah,

so I'm gonna go through my

prospects of the week and I

got two stories that I want

to get to as far as the top

100 from this past week um

we're gonna start with I

have one hitter and that is

max clark and single a for

the tigers who was drafted

last season and to me was a

head scratching pick

because I thought wyatt

langford was the lock to be

there um last week he hit

went nine for 19 had a

double two home runs nine

rbis three walks four runs

and a stolen base

This season he's hitting 281 with a 72 OPS,

six home runs, 55 RBIs,

50 runs scored and 24 stolen bases.

This kid keeps doing this.

If he can do this at the next level,

I mean,

right now he's at single A. So

high A is next for him doing this.

I don't see an issue with

him being a double A and we

could be seeing him.

My guess is his ETA is 2026, maybe 2027.

Yep.

Probably along those lines.

Um,

But I'll go right into the pitchers.

One of them is one I think

you wrote the player profile for.

That's Jacob Misarowski from

the Brewers playing at AA.

Last week, six and a third, one run,

two hits, 10 walks, 10 Ks.

This season.

Did you say 10 walks?

No, two walks, 10 Ks.

Okay.

I'm not putting him in the

pitch for the week if he's got 10 walks.

No, I didn't think so.

He's two and three with a 3.38 ERA,

a 1.28 whip.

But the 88 strikeouts in 66

and two-thirds innings is nice to see.

AAA's got to be calling soon, right?

You would think.

The next one, also,

Max Clark is the 11th-ranked prospect.

That'll be changing with

Skeens graduating.

Yeah.

Misrowski is 22nd.

The next one is the 37th-ranked prospect,

which is Chase Dolander,

a guy I am very high on for the Rockies.

At high A, last week he went five innings,

gave up six hits, did not allow a run,

walked one, and struck out ten.

Boy, they need an arm, don't they?

Wait for the stats of the season.

Four and one with a 2.82 ERA, a 1.25 whip,

102 strikeouts, and 67 innings pitched.

Holy shit.

that's another one, AA.

And the second I see AA and

the Yardgoats are coming to New Hampshire,

I'll be there.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yep, not missing that one.

The final one is another one.

I don't know how this team does it.

They just produce arms.

It's Bubba Chandler,

and he's the 63rd-ranked

prospect pitching a AA for

Altoona for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Yep.

Last week, did it again.

I think I've mentioned him

the last three weeks.

He just keeps doing this.

Seven and two-thirds, two hits,

didn't allow a run,

and he struck out seven.

Yeah.

Now he's improved to five.

I think since I started

doing him and including him

in the last three weeks,

he went from two and five

to five and five.

He's got a 3.65 ERA, a 1.04 whip,

74 strikeouts,

and 61 and two-thirds innings.

Wow.

So the pitching is –

Pittsburgh's got some depth

in their system.

I saw somebody did a mock

trade for Flagler Jr.,

which I wrote about,

and they mentioned Bubba Chandler,

and I was like, I would not do that.

There's another prospect

who's just below him,

and that's Anthony Solometto.

I would think about including him.

The only issue I have with

the possibility of including him,

if that was a thing,

if they get into the point

of being buyers,

is that's the left-handed

arm you're expecting to be

a part of this rotation.

Yeah.

Because Perez isn't going to

be around forever, so yeah.

Right, and with Jones, Skeens,

and Chandler, they're all righties.

Yeah.

And you need a lefty in there.

Yeah.

The two stories for the

prospects for the week that

I want to get into is one

of them is my 35th ranked

prospect is Brady House.

Yeah.

From the Washington National System.

He just got promoted to AAA.

Okay.

And this season at AA Harrisburg,

he's hitting .234 with a .733 OPS.

He has 13 home runs,

which is the third most in

the Eastern League.

He has 34 RBIs, 38 runs scored,

which was 21st in the Eastern League.

He had five stolen bases.

So now think about it.

They moved up James Wood to

the big leagues.

They called up Cruz not long

before that happened.

And he is at AAA now.

And now they call up the third baseman,

Brady House.

So now we're talking next season.

We could have Wood, Cruz,

and House all in the

Nationals with the pitch of

Warren Mitchell, Parker.

they could be a year,

two years away from really

being in the conversation

of maybe not winning the division,

but really, you know, right now,

where would we say they were?

They were five back with a

1% chance of making the playoffs.

If they're all there next year,

we can be talking about

them being three back at

this point with a six seven

eight percent chance of

making a play It's coming

if you're a national fan

that that time is coming

where we're talking like

you had the Harper and

Harper leaves New York Soto

and you had Rendon like

that time is coming again.

Yeah It is not long off.

Nope.

The final story for the

prospects of the week is

the 13th ranked prospect

from the Tigers Jackson

Jobe finally made his

return to double-a and

after pitching at West

Michigan and in his return,

he went five innings, a lot of one on run,

give up three hits,

walked one and struck out eight.

Not bad for a return up to

double a. Absolutely not.

There's a lot of talent,

lot of talent in the minors and any,

for anyone listening that

is familiar with our site,

I highly recommend if

you're interested in minor

league baseball, follow CJ stuff.

He's got the Eastern league, uh,

And you do the... International League.

International League.

But then also follow and

check out the prospects.

All the prospects have, for the most part,

have a bio page.

If you're interested in some

of this stuff and learn a little bit more,

play around with that.

Spend some time.

Learn.

A lot of time and effort.

And a lot of coverage that

CJ provides there.

So don't be shy.

Go in.

horse around in there and

learn about some of these

guys that are soon to be coming up.

So with the prospects all taken care of,

what is your big week?

Let's cut this a little

shorter in sake of time.

Your during the week series,

your weekend series, one each,

and I'll do one each,

and then we can let

everyone off the hook for the night.

So I'll do my week one.

It's Dodgers-Phillies.

Yep.

I mean,

it's the two best teams in the

National League, realistically.

And you get a possible NLCS

series preview.

Yep.

The weekend.

You want me to cut it down to one?

I'll allow you to have two.

I'll be that kind of guy.

All right.

I'll go with one from each league.

Okay.

Let's go with Brace Padres

from the National League.

Yep.

I've got that one,

so that cuts one of mine out.

All right.

And the other one?

Royals, Red Sox,

just because those two

teams are fighting for the

last wildcard spot.

I'll be there Saturday.

Good.

So that was one for me.

And I agree.

That's going to be an interesting one.

I believe they both have the

same record as of right now.

They both have 49 wins.

I believe.

I could be wrong.

One last loss.

Yeah.

Royals are 49 and 43.

Red Sox are 49 and 40.

So the Red Sox are three games better,

but three games behind.

So my during the week series

is a little bit different.

It's the Yankees race

because the rays aren't

playing bad baseball

because if the rays go in

and win that series versus

the Yankees and the Red Sox

can go and win the series

against the A's Red Sox keep creeping.

So that's my during the week.

My weekend one, I did have both the Braves,

Padres.

I also had the Red Sox

Royals simply because I was going.

But the other one, I guess for me,

is more based off of what I

hope they do during the week.

If the Reds can take care of

business against the lonely

Rockies and win that series

three games to one,

that would put them at 46 and 49.

Then they play the Marlins

for three games.

If they can win that and

somehow find a way to go to

the All-Star break at 500,

they've now put themselves

in position coming out of

the All-Star break to hit

the ground running.

The pitching has been there.

So that's one for me.

They're both weak opponents.

But this is something I've

talked about a little bit

in articles is the Reds

should have been taking care of business

A few series ago.

They should have been doing this.

Can they do it now?

Because if they can't do it now,

it's not going to get any

better after the All-Star

break because they're not

going to invest.

So those are my two on top

of the two you talked about.

So to wrap this up tonight, again, follow,

subscribe, like all our socials.

Pay attention to the podcast.

Pay attention to social

media in the upcoming days

because we are going to do

something Monday night

during the Home Run Derby

that we've not done yet.

We're going to do a live show,

leave on Facebook Live.

We'll take questions.

We want to interact with

everyone that wants to.

We want to talk about the Home Run Derby.

If we can jump on in time ahead of it,

it'd be great to do our

picks so that we can pick

one each and see how that goes.

And then we'll talk about

the AL Wild Cards.

And we'll talk about some trades,

some moves that could be

made once we want to see

happen once we don't want to see happen.

And just some of the rumors

are flying around.

We'll talk baseball live.

We'll take questions and

we'll just kind of have

some fun interacting and

see how that goes.

And if that goes well,

and that's something that people like,

you know,

we've toyed around with it

before doing something

similar during a big inning.

So it, maybe that's something we can do.

This'll be a test, but we're, I'm,

I'm really looking forward to it.

One,

to be back involved and

talking baseball with you

and getting back into the

groove of things.

Um, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Can't wait to spend the rest

of the week talking to you,

kind of planning things out,

talking it through and see

how it would actually work.

Um, but other than that, like I said,

it's great to be back.

Um, a lot of stuff going on.

This is a great time in baseball, um,

to be getting back into the

groove with the trade deadline,

all-star game break,

and then the push to the pennant.

So, um,

I'm just thankful.

Thankful to be back.

Appreciate you keeping

things going while I've been tied up,

busy, and away.

So anything else you'd like

to add before we close out for the night?

One final thing, and it's not a series,

but Friday night,

if you're sitting at home, whatever,

get out of work after your

first full week back after

the holiday weekend, there is a game.

with potentially one of the

best pitching matchups of the season.

Okay.

Tigers and the Dodgers,

Scooble versus Glass now.

Really?

6.40 start time.

So it's not your typical Dodgers,

10 o'clock at night.

So if you're on the East

Coast and you want to see

the Dodgers actually play,

you're going to get a

chance to when you get to see those bats.

Shohei,

a left-handed hitter against Tarek

Scooble, a left-handed pitcher.

we're going to see a great matchup.

And you get to see really

what Tarek Skubal is all

about if you haven't had a chance to.

So that was my only thing

was I wanted to just

include that fantastic – I mean,

this guy – Yeah, that's a great matchup.

We got great pitching coming up.

So that's it for me.

Awesome.

Well, again, thank you, everyone,

for tuning in tonight.

Like we've said, like, subscribe, chat,

follow us.

Follow us on all the social channels.

CJ, thank you again.

I appreciate everything

while I've been out taking

care of things and really

glad to be talking baseball

with you and looking

forward to Monday night.

Pay attention, folks.

All the socials.

We'll be sending out info in

regards to what's going to

go down Monday night during

the Home Run Derby.

Thanks again, everyone, for listening.

Until next time,

this is Inside the Diamonds podcast.

Have a good night.

Glad you're back, CJ.

I mean, JC.

You're CJ.

Wow.

I'm confusing who I am.

There you go.

And I'll remember who I am that time.

Perfect.

Later, guys.

See ya.