Houston Astros AL West Champions & Are The Yankees A Playoff Team?

Houston Astros AL West Champions & Are The Yankees A Playoff Team?

What is up my friends? Welcome to John Smoltz day here on Flipping Bats where every single week the Hall of Famer John Smoltz joins us to talk things around the game of baseball, what he’s seeing around the game. This week we were both together at Bristol Motor Speedway to see that uh experience and it was almost really really incredible. But I want to I want to hear about it from John’s perspective and what it was like in the booth and what his experience was there. Um, but also what’s currently happening around the game, which is the New York Yankees can’t win a baseball game. They have a lot of base running mistakes going out around the field. Jazz Chisum getting thrown out at first on a routine pop up in the infield trying to maybe do a little too much there. Um, you have the AL West battle getting closer and closer and closer. So, a lot of want to talk to uh to John this week about baseball. But remember, Flipping Bats is presented by FanDuel Bet Baseball with us all season long on America’s number one sports book. But without further ado, let’s welcome in John Smoltz. All right, and I am pumped to be joined now by the Hall of Famer, John Smoltz, as we are every single week. John, how are we doing this week? Doing great. Uh just got through the uh Motor Speedway Classic, which was almost the most epic thing I’ve ever been part of. Um but unfortunately, Mother Nature did not participate. Yeah, I I want to ask you about it. I was there on site as well for a very brief period of time. We saw 91,000 people genuinely in the stands for the flyover, for the anthem. I mean, it was packed and a really cool experience. What What was your experience like being there on hand as a as a broadcaster for the event? Uh, what was your experience like? Well, you know, anticipating leading up not knowing what we were going to see. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Um, got there at 1:45. There had to be 30,000 people waiting in line, getting there, enjoying the day, concerts. The adrenaline and the atmosphere leading into game time was unbelievable. It was going to be unmatched. Players were going to have such adrenaline that I think it would have been epic. Um, unfortunately, the weather couldn’t have been worse. And it kind of zapped everything. And then of course you got people complaining like everyone can do that I’ve talked about and they forget what it was going to be like and then we did the game on Sunday and weather was great and fans really showed out. I just got to give the credit to all the fans waiting uh putting forth the effort sitting in seats that maybe couldn’t even see the game but had to watch the jumbotron. I thought it was unique. I thought it was great. It just didn’t end up the way everybody had intended and Major League Baseball may look at whether to do this or got again and and because it was that that incredible of a setting. What was what’s it like for you and Joe Davis in the booth? You’re off camera. You’re not currently on. There’s a rain delay. All this is happening. You’re in a NASCAR track. Take us behind the scenes of like what that’s like when you’re not off camera. Are you just like what are what’s happening here? Yeah. You know, so first of all, the optics were unbelievable from our booth, makeshift booth. Uh you just can’t imagine how small the field looked because how big the race stadium is. You know, the racetrack was done. You know, it’s one of the smallest tracks, but it’s circular. And so you could actually put a baseball field in that banking system of the grandstands. And it was spectacular. The field looked great. Now, now obviously the rain and and the water on the field was making it unplayable. Yeah. But you’re sitting there kind of feeling bad for everybody that’s sitting in the sand stands. You know, it’s going to be maybe a long night. Uh you hope you can get the game in and it just didn’t work. Uh the radar is different there than it would be at a major league field and and really the when you’re I got tired of staring at the radar thinking we’re going to miss it, we’re going to miss it. we’re going to miss it. It just never missed. It’s got socked into the mountain area and it was it’s just so unfortunate cuz I thought that so many good things could have happened from this. Well, let’s talk about what’s currently happening around the league. Uh I want to start with the New York Yankees and just they’ve continued to fall losing I think five games in a row now every game since the trade deadline. They’re holding on to the final wildcard spot by half a game. Aaron Judge has been hurt, but he’s finally back as of the last night or so. John, are are the New York Yankees a playoff team in your eyes? Oh man, uh they’ve been a playoff team in my eyes for so long, but then all of a sudden you’re just finding ways to lose games, which is not typical of that team. Um they added a lot of beef in their bullpen and yes, the answer should be yes. Um, but you know how how seasons go and when things don’t click and guys get hurt in crucial situations. Aaron Judge is the most important person in baseball to the to one team. Uh, you can make the argument show Otani is definitely that to the Dodgers, but they have a surrounding cast that that supports a lot better than maybe the New York Yankees do, and that’s not slighting the players in New York. It’s just it’s just the the fact that that LA was has put together a pretty impressive roster. But staying healthy is the key to everything. And the Yankees for years now have not been able to keep their two big sluggers healthy. Judge was healthy for a good portion of the last year and a half. Unfortunately, the wrong time. Um, here’s what happens. Teams get hot. Teams start believing. Toronto Blue Jays start believing. Boston Red Sox start believing. I’m not saying the Yankees let teams in to start and believe in, but they they’re actually their their latest slide in really the last month and a half now makes them very vulnerable. Um I still at the end of the day, I still think they’re going to be a playoff team. I really do. Uh but they sure haven’t shown that in the last two and a half, three weeks. Yeah, we we saw Jazz Chisum on the bases the other day make sort of a a boneheaded play. Just a routine pop up in the infield and he’s on first base. ends up getting thrown out at first base after the guy catches the ball. We’ve seen a couple of base running, easy baseball 101 base running mistakes over the last couple weeks around the game of baseball. If you’re a manager, because this is becoming a pretty big topic of conversation, if you’re a manager, what are you doing if a a boneheaded baseball play is made on the bases, not just once, but but multiple times? How do you go about it? I think the biggest thing you got to do is understand that there’s a reinforcement of the of the general things that we take for granted, right? When you press and when there’s pressure and when guys are trying to make incredible plays or do incredible things, it backfires sometimes and looks awful. You just got to stay to the fundamentals of where you are. As a baseball player, you sit there and you go, “Okay, I don’t need to be heroic. I just need to do and put forth the effort that makes us look better.” Even if it’s a hard hustle mistake, even if it’s a something that baseball you can be fine with, the optics of the game look worse. And I totally get what he was possibly thinking. I I do. I I’ve wanted to do that a million times if I was a second baseman. And I don’t know why more second basemans don’t do that. But it just can’t happen in the in the mode of when you’re struggling. Yeah. You know, if you’re up by seven games, Yeah. Maybe maybe it it goes unnoticed, but you it’s the pressure of expecting to win when you don’t do those things and it makes it feel worse. And obviously Aaron Boon has to answer questions that don’t seem reasonable at the time, but he understands why people are questioning the certain things cuz how they ended last year, it was so bad for them. It was just something that had plagued them all year that became their undoing at the worst time in the World Series. And so you think, okay, we’re going to pay attention to those things next year. We’re going to change them. And sometimes they, you know, they creep back up and you go, here you go again. I don’t think everything’s fair, but I think what we just talked about is is fair to ask a manager why and what is he going to do about it. Yep. Last one for you, John. We don’t have to dive too far into it, but my question for you is in the AL West, we have the Houston Astros beaten and battered and just trying to survive the season at this point and trying to get healthy. We have the Seattle Mariners making moves at the deadline that are genuinely helping them big time at this point. And we have the Texas Rangers playing some good ball in a half a game out of a wild card spot. Who do you like in the AL West? And I’m telling you right now, if you’d have told me that Houston would be in this situation, I’d say unbelievable. I think what Seattle did gives them a slight edge, even though they’re they’re they’re games behind. Um it’s hard for me to go against Houston with the DNA and what it’s just some magic there. But if pressed, I I think roster-wise and teamwise, Seattle seems to have unlocked some things at the corner with their offense. their pitching has not been as good as we typically think they will and I think they’re going to pitch better and it’s the same story for Texas. If they score they win period. Their pitching is as good as as Seattle’s. Maybe their bullpen is not but they just got to find a way. So it comes down really to to me which team finds the offense. uh typically pitching a defense win, but in this case, the offense is going to win for those teams I’m talking about because they have the other things they need to uh make it difficult on other teams. The AL West is the Houston Astros until somebody knocks them off. So, I feel like they’re the team right now that you got to look at and say it’s the Astros until it’s not the Astros. That’s right. Yeah, I would agree. Absolutely, John. Really appreciate it, my friend. Uh let’s do it again next week. All right. Look forward to it. All right. Just wanted to thank John as always for joining us here on the show. Always incredible. No matter where he is, no matter what he’s doing, he takes 15 minutes once a week every single week to join us here on the show. And it really is really cool. It really does mean a ton and I hope you all enjoy it as well. Uh interesting interesting conversation about what you do with players and and situations on the bases. I do know when it comes to to Jazz Chisum um you know it does it looks terrible and I agree with John when you’re in a when you’re in a losing skid and you’re not playing great and then that happens it’s just terrible terrible optics. uh but you know you’re just you’re out there trying to do too much and I’ve seen that a couple times around the league and then the conversation comes what do you do as a manager and in my opinion as a manager at some point you need to hold accountability and say look I might understand what you’re trying to do but it’s not the time or you didn’t end up doing it and you have to make sure something like that happens it’s it’s like the old you know like if you’re going to go here you have to make sure you get there you know stolen base in a big situation or in a situation where you wouldn’t typically run. If you’re going to do it, you have to make sure you do it. And in that situation, Jazz Chisum ends up doing something that looks terrible and at some point you have to hold your players accountable and it just feels like not just with the Yankees and Aaron Boom, but around the game of baseball, there are so many mistakes happening on the bases. That is baseball 101. I watched Elliot Ramos get thrown out the other day. First and second, less than two outs. Pop up to the third baseman. routine infield fly rule, right? Everybody’s yelling infield fly. Third baseman drops the ball intentionally. Elliot Ramos starts to run to third base and he’s like, “Oh no.” And starts to run back and he gets thrown out. Baseball 101. And at a certain point, I think players just need to be held accountable no matter what level you’re at. But I do think it’s an interesting question and I appreciate John for for talking through it with me. Thank you all for listening. As always, make sure you subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. Apple, Spotify. Uh, also subscribe to our YouTube channel, Flipping Bats Pod. You can watch every single episode we do on our Flipping Bats Pod YouTube channel. Leave a comment. I’ll always hop in the comments and talk back to you guys and have a fun conversation with you. Uh, but like the video, leave a comment, hit that subscribe button. That really helps as well. And check us out on all social media, Flipbats Pod. Enjoy the weekend of baseball, everyone. Really, really good weekend coming up of baseball and a lot of good matchups. a lot of close divisions at this point. We are getting close to the middle of August and things are about to start heating up big time with a lot of playoff implications on the line. Favorite time of year. Let’s do it. Remember 2025 is the year of flipping bats. We are rolling along. This has been awesome and uh enjoy the weekend. Until Monday, my friends, remember, find your bat and flip it. Peace.

Ben Verlander is joined once again by MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz for an action-packed episode! The two break down the MLB Speedway Classic, debate whether the New York Yankees are truly a playoff team, and make bold predictions for the AL West race between the Mariners, Astros, and Rangers. Don’t miss Smoltz’s expert insight and hot takes as the postseason picture starts to take shape!

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Houston Astros AL West Champions & Are The Yankees A Playoff Team?