“51” Ichiro’s Retirement: Tampa Bay Rays (57-59) vs. Seattle Mariners (63-53) MLB P-B-P 8-9-25

“51” Ichiro’s Retirement: Tampa Bay Rays (57-59) vs. Seattle Mariners (63-53) MLB P-B-P 8-9-25

What’s going on, ladies and gentlemen? It is August 9, 2025. We just finished each row’s enshrinement speech at T-Mobile Park and it was absolutely fantastic. again. You made the joke about to make a second consecutive speech in two weeks in English. You did an excellent job. There’s a lot of stuff that I want to bring to you as far as that speech. Again, I don’t know if I’m going to be joined by anybody tonight. However, I will give you some stuff in from the ceremony that I just watched and I’ll take some of the pictures and stuff from the dropping of that number and the plaque and everything else and throw that in the story. As far as the starting lineups for today, let’s go over those right now while we’re waiting for the game to start. For the Tampa Bay Rays, it’s batting order and manager Kevin Cash. Again, five games back wild card 11 of the AL East. Tampa Bay Rays are 57 and 60. Yanni Diaz is going to lead off play first, bat right. Brandon Lau in the DH spot. He’ll get a day off of second. He’ll bet left. Josh Josh Low in the cleanup and right field batting left. Junior Camro. He is a very good prospect. Again, he’s only 22 years of age, but I shouldn’t even say prospect. He’s an absolute stud. He’s going to be in the cleanup playing third base, right? Chandler Simpson’s going to move all the way to fifth in the order. He has no power. He’s not going to get the ball out of the infield, but he’s got absolutely elite speed, so try to keep that going on the base pads. We got Hunter Fiducia in the six spot. That’ll be the one position for Kevin Cash. It’ll probably a little bit weak. He’ll catch bat left and then Hassan Kim in short bat right. Tristan Peters in center. We’re going to give Jake Mangum the day off. He’ll bat left and then Tristan Gray will be in the second spot left as well. So Hassan Kim’s going to have to do some heavy lifting from that seven spot because between six, eight, and nine for Kevin Cash. It doesn’t seem all that dangerous today. Again, their starter is going to be Joe Bole the right-hander, the 25year-old. And for Dan Wilson and the Seattle Mariners, it sounds like this. They are looking for again depending on whether they win today, they’d have to win the last two out. It would be a 9 and1 home stand. If they lose out the last two games, it’ll still be seven and three. So the home stand’s going to be pretty good, but they want to continue to build on that. They are 64 and 53. They’ve only lost one game since the trade deadline. They got seven and one since. So it’s going to be the same lineup as it’s been since we’ve covered them last week. Randy Rosen in left bat right. Kell Raleigh will catch in the switch position there between the bat side at two. Julio Rodriguez in center field batting third. Josh Naylor fourth at first base. He’s back in the lineup. He was taken out day today from an overswing couple of days ago, but he’s back in the lineup. He’s a threat to steal bases. I know that sounds crazy, but he’s been ridiculous since he’s been over the Mariners. Juno Suarez will still bat fifth. He’s going to play third base right Jorge Palano the DH and six Dom Canzone JP Crawford Cole Young right field short stop second base 789 and the starter today for the M will be Logan Evans the 24 year old again when I was drawn by Cooper Hopkins last week at the trade deadline when they got Gino he did mention when he was at T-Mobile Field he saw Logan Evans do pretty well for the five innings I have yet to see him pitch this year. So, it’ll be my first look at him in between the cutter, sweeper, sinker, change up, for seam, and curve. So, they are showing some more of the banner shots as we are getting underway at T-Mobile Park. Again, they shed some of the camera shots there of the smoke coming out of the bullpin. There was Suzuki seated right next to Ken Griffy Jr. And then moving it to Relay, the number 51. That’s going to be alongside Robinson Griffy and Edgar Martinez. That is one hell of a sight. Again, last time I was at Com Park in Detroit, they retired the number of Jim Leland. Jim Leland’s one of the best managers of all time, but I think Ichiro, you could talk about best Mariners and this and that and you have that conversation. You already know that point blank. But we see guys like Shoe Otani now and you think about Ichiro other than the exception of pitching. Ichiro is one of the greatest Japanese players let alone one of the greatest players to ever play this game. I’m 38 years old. I’m not sure where Cooper Hopkins is along where I am. I think we’re along that same age range. And for Ichiro, if I tell you that he’s got the hoes in the outfield like Roberto Clemente, that’s not a lie as far as what he’s got. The elite bat to ball skills of someone like Tony Gwyn, a guy that has hit over 372 in 2024. and he didn’t come over here into the states, I believe, until he was 27 over the land of the rising sun. So, he comes over late from the Japanese leagues. And as soon as he steps on the field, I know 27 makes it hard to make you think you’re a rookie, but technically that was his status. Well established hitter. 10 seasons from 27 to 36 in age range. Had over 200 hits each time, a little over 300 hitter. again 372 and 24 at age 30. There really wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. So to have his number be retired is as Kriffy Jr. said it was about damn time. Everybody’s been waiting for that. His number 51 is also emlazing onto the field today. So you’re going to see that singing in the center field side. I’m going to pause for a little bit here before we get into playbyplay, but I want to give some uh summation of what we saw and I’ll give you some more of those stats as we go across throughout the game. But I’ll stay here with you through the entirety of the playbyplay. Stop here with you late and call this I imagine and between Tampa and Seattle, they have a chance again to gain another game in the American League East or uh West, excuse me, and get very, very close. They’re already got headway in that wild card. They could probably pass Houston at some point if they keep this up. What’s going on, Ian? Uh, not much, man. The Royals just um picked up a two nothing victory and the Twins still trying to scratch and claw for that third wild card spot. It’s definitely possible. I mean, look, you did better than uh Tigers did. Tigers lost the series to the Twins and lost two of three. So, I’m glad somebody beat them. My goodness. Well, we got one more. We got a rubber match. Uh we got a rubber match coming up tomorrow. So see who’s gonna at 12:05 simple. See who’s on the bump. Ryan Burger who was who was impressive in his first start against uh against Boston. Very impressive in his first start against Boston. From what I’m seeing, and I hope that’s the case for you, Ian, to continue to move across the AL Central. The only thing you need is for the Guardians to start losing some games. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen against the White Socks here is they have just uh finished their top of the ninth. So, White Socks have the final bats. They’re trailing 3-1. Guardians coming off of a sweep of the Mets. Tigers drop another game. So if this holds, it will be down to five for the Tigers when it was 165 before the Allstar break and dropping games like crazy in a short span of time. So God help me. Yeah, it’s uh well and the uh well, I was going to say right now Cooper Hopkins Mariners are in an advantageous position because the San Diego Padres’s are looking to are looking to make it are looking to maintain their position in the wild card race and they’re facing Boston right now who is just ahead of the Mariners in the AL wild card. Mhm. Yeah. Let me look at that score. Right now it’s a 32 lead for the Red Sox. Ever since they got rid of Rafie Devers, they have been hot again. The Red Sox and the Padres’s both really good teams. Padres’s just a half game essentially off the pace. They got one less scheme played both 65 52 64 and 52. So Ian’s exactly right again. You had the Houston Astros lose today to the Yankees. So that gave the Mariners another game in the AL West. That is only one game back. They could draw to a half game if they beat the Rays today. And I guess I’m not saying this, but I’m going to throw it out there. You could make the argument that the Mariners could be peaking too early, but we have about a month and a half of regular season left to go. You need to make up the games now. I think the Mariners are doing exactly what they have to do. Yeah. The uh what was it? Well, the final game in the series for the Royals against Boston. Um, they won that game, but they won it in very well, I mean, John, the the Royals had five had five batters. Now, they hit five batters. Five of their batters got hit by Boston pitchers. Five seems like an awful lot. Maybe uh three too many. Well, actually it was technically six, but one of them would was but one of them was going to count it but one of them counted as a strikeout because Vinnie Pascantino swung through the third pitch and it hit him on the leg. I got you. That happens sometimes. You look like a fool when that happens in MLB the show. So, the Mariners now are going to start to take the field again. I know ESPN has a list of delay. They did not mention the Ichro ceremony on the website. Again, I already know that. That’s why we kind of talked about some of that. I plan this being a little bit late. Again, Ichiro made the joke about having to make a second speech in English over the last two weeks. He did it very, very good throughout that speech. Again, it’ll be interesting. I never been to T-Mobile Park, but it’d be pretty cool to actually see that plaque and everything else in Seattle. That’s going to be there. And then they’re going to also retire Randy Johnson next year. So Randy Johnson gave Ishiro that number 51 number. That was the only number he wore in Japan. So you have two players essentially retired from that same number. So that’ll be cool to see when that plaque is also available next year. So have Iro and the big unit cutter sweeper sinker change up forcing and curve for Logan Evans. And as far as the percentiles in which he throws all of those, I could say you could take all those pitches, throw them in a bucket, and any one of those six will pop out at you. Four strikes. Now, the one thing for Logan Evans as Yanni Diaz, who’s another elite contact, the ball skills, is going to get set to lead off here for Kevin Cash’s squad. You can’t sit on anything if you’re Kevin Cash’s squad, but you want to stay away from the down and in, down and away changer depending on the handedness. That’s the one thing I saw from baseball savant. And the cutters can either be in on the hands or be painted on the black. So those are the two things that I had picked out from the scouting report. And as mentioned in between 1 through nine for Dan Wilson and the Seattle Mariners, you have the same order that you’ve had since the deadline. Josh Naylor is back into the lineup. Little bit of an overextension a few games ago from a big swing, but he’s got 10 bags stolen again. The first baseman since a member of the deadline crossing over again. It was a week and a half that he was acquired before Gino. It was at deadline day. 10 bags already for the Mariners and Naylor. So, he doesn’t have a lead speed, but he knows how to read the pictures and he says he’s a student of the game game film between his parents watching tendencies and things like that. Really goes to show if you pay attention to what you see and pick off on these pitchers, it works out. So, first pitch is a curveball will be down, but it’s in the zone. And then they split her way down in the dirt, make it one against Yandi Diaz. Again, these numbers might be a day old, but 279 average, 20 home runs, 66 RBI. He could hit more. He doesn’t want to go after those launch angles that a lot of those guys like Riley Green and the Tigers when you’re could be setting an alltime strikeout record. So, he’s going to get more bat the ball, but he takes a 91 right in on the hands make it one and two. You’re going to see a lot of those camera shots. Again, I’m watching this on the MLB app because T-Mobile, you get all the stuff done for free if you get it done early enough in the year. So, I’m carrying the Root Sports feed as this one’s one and two. And a change up will be handcuffed down the first baseline. We’ll do it again. He’s slugging 466. So, again, the 20 home runs. I’ll tell you, he’s got a little bit of a pop. 37 walks, 69 strikeouts for the 33y old already. Going to play first base today. waiting on the one, two, and a big swing and a miss on a change up. So, good work there for Logan Evans. And I’ll bring up Brandon Laauo. Lao is normally the second baseman, but he’s the DH today. Again, he’s only played at 93 games, so he’s missed some of this time, the injury. And then Josh Low in the cleanup at 70 games. They need both of those guys, again, unrelated, but both of those guys to be able to step up and get you some power and pretty much bring those averages up. Because when you look at, no disrespect to Hassan Kim, he’s just coming back 15 games played, but Hunter Fiducia, Tristan Peters, and Tristan Gray. There is not much as far as that bottom end as this one is going to take Randy Rosarena to the track. And Brandon Laauo is going to tape Logan Evans deep. That’s his 22nd home run. So I just talked about that from the second and third as he air mail that thing just over the fence and the left field and makes it a one- nothing lead early. The second batter into the game. So take a look and see where he put the bat head out front of. It was an offspe pitch that he hand grenaded just past Randy Rose Arena and shy of the foul pole. Put that right in the corner right where it needed to be because otherwise it would have been easily caught. So now live it up to Josh Low as this is a offspe pitch down in the dirt. make it one and0 again for Josh just seven home runs 27 RBI they need his help he does have 11 stolen bases for Tampa squad that’s what they like to do is run when you get the Chandler Simpson at fifth I got some eye opening steps for him as it’s 233 average for Josh Low and Brandon Louau just went deep that’s why it’s a one nothing lead for Tampa here at T-Mobile Park. That’s another off speed pitch is one and two. That was a cutter down in the dirt. It’s a lot of close games here for the Seattle Mariners over the last stretch of the nine. Most of them have been decided by one or two runs. He had an extra inning game the other day against the White Socks. No problem here for JP Crawford. and Josh Naylor will pick this one up off the bounce and step on the bag. It’ll be two out and leave it up to junior Cam Arrow. He was a member of the home run derby this year and Cameron Arrow, 22 years of age, already got 30 tanks and 110 games played. Now, I’m not bringing this up to air any sort of dirty laundry, but I just want to make it known again as Camaro follows back a cutter at 89. If it wasn’t for, and this is his fault completely, again, I don’t want to bring all this up and have a long talk about it, but if Wer Franco wasn’t doing what he was doing, that’s going to pretty much take him out of baseball forever. He’s pretty much blacklisted. Will never be uh spoken of. But if you had him alongside Jun Junior Camro, the Tampa Bay Rays record easily would be flipped from 60 to 57 as this is a popup. Cole Young is going to catch it. But that changed the course of what the Rays had because they had potentially a franchise player and now they don’t have one. But they still have Junior Camro. So one home run for Brandon Lao, no other damage. We’ll go bottom one. Raise up one up. days almost treat [Music] heart attacks. Man, I still can’t believe the trade deadline that we just had. It was pretty good. I mean, there was a lot of big hits for teams that wanted to take swings for teams that didn’t. You know, they’re kind of seeing the results that we would expect. But the trade deadline was pretty good. I give a big more than a golf club big hand to the guys that were willing like Jerry Deoto and settle to go for it because I think it also brings in the confidence to all the other players in that locker room. It’s got to pump you up. Yeah. And of course, do you think do you So, we’ve seen it for drafting and other things in other sports. Do you think if Adrian Per keeps doing what he’s doing, they’re gonna make they’re gonna make a brother? You would have to think so. Yeah. If he just keeps trading his number one prospect every year. Yeah. I don’t I don’t understand any of that stuff going on over there. I never will. And uh it kind of makes you think about, if you want to say hockey terms, of the Buffalo Sabres. There’s just certain other teams that just never seem to get better and they make very curious decisions. Well, it’s not I mean, but this is different from the Savers. The the Padres were a decent team and the Pillard said, “Oh,” and the Pill said, “Oh, no. We’re just going to make We’re just going to make our bullpen unbeatable. Then what do they have? Uh and it’s Robert Suarez, Jason Adam. They’ve added Mason Miller, right? They still have one other one. They got four guys in there that are lights out. Yeah. So, Adam Miller, Suarez, I believe. Let’s see. I’m trying to think back to when the to when the Royals faced them before Miller. Who is the other guy? Dang. Oh, wait. No, no, that was last year. Tanner Scott with Dodgers. Now, I was thinking the I’m thinking the same thing. I got three of the four names just like you. I can’t think of the fourth, but they can go six, seven, eight, nine. You know a lot about that as a member of the Royals when they end up winning the World Series. Raineia Rosena draws a walk to lead it off for the Mariners. I want to mention here it for Joe Bole. He already had four pitches over 100 miles an hour in that first one against Randy Rose Arena. So that has to make me believe that he’s not going to go more than four or five innings because if he does that and probably going to blow his arm out as now Kell Raleigh will get set to lead it up here after the walk. So Joe Bole was six pitches into his day and again as I mentioned four pitches well over 100 again one and one 230 erra 088 whip and 27 and a third innings pitch. So I’m not sure if he’s going to be the opener today but another one 101 misses outside. He is absolutely bringing it in. Again, when I see that like that, I have to imagine he’s the opener today because if you keep that one going, that’s how you hurt yourself. Yeah. Okay. So, the fourth guy, I guess you could say in the Padres’s bullpen, it’s a guy named Jeremiah. That’s who it is. I couldn’t got 73 strikeouts on the year as a bullpen arm. I mean, you saw it with uh Holland, Herrera, uh Davis. Davis. I mean, you had that’s how you guys ended up winning the World Series anyway. I know you traded for Quo and won it and two, but that elite bullpin is what changed it. This is a very wild pitch at 101 and it’s going to put Randy in scoring position already. So, runner at second from the walk and a wild pitch and Cali’s got a 2-1 count. Yeah. Well, it’s Well, here’s the thing. Holland, you know how everyone talks about it to gauge, but Holland got injured at at some point during the um during the season. So, let let me look, but I’m pretty sure he got he got injured during the season. Cal Raleigh is going to wait on a 22 as he follows a 100 straight back on the bottom black again. Cal Raleigh his numbers since this deadline have been down. He’s been striking out a little bit more. He was closer to a 260 hitter. He’s been down to 248 and his strikeouts went from about 120 since we last covered. Not even a week ago, not a 136. He’s got a couple more home runs from 41 to 43. and he’s going to be a lock for 100 RBI. He’s sitting at 93 right now. But the strikeout has been more prone. Again, you can’t keep those numbers up forever because he’s already surpassing guys like Johnny Bench. Here’s a full count. See what Randy Rosarina wants to do. 101 blows him away. So, Cal Raleigh is going to go grab some pine and Joe Bole continues to throw absolute bombs as it’s one out now in the bottom of the first. Julio Rodriguez now gets set to dig in. As I mentioned, for the numbers that were a little bit lower for Kell, Julio starting to percolate again. and he’s at 117 games played today. 252 had a couple of bombs since then. He’s sitting at 21 now. He’s got 22 stolen bases. So, he’s always been locked for a 2020 type of guy. I’d like to see him get a 3030 basketball way up top. Make it one hundo. And now a two and one count against Julio Rodriguez. So, 280 in the last 24 games. It’s my pitilation as far as the notes. Again, he’s in that three spot. Provide the protection for Josh Naylor. Does not get the call on an off speed pitch. Again, I say that desparingly because 93 from 101 doesn’t really feel off speed, but he throws it in the zone. Doesn’t get the call. Make it two and one. He’s got those aviator glasses going as well. This is center cut. Julio Rodriguez at the wall. It’s gone. JROD goes deep and the Mariners have a 2-1 lead. Julio Rodriguez is going to go in there and slap hands with Gino and grab the Trident and he took a fast ball. He was ready for the heat again. That’s all Joel Bole’s really been throwing. I would have to say out of the 16 pitches, 13 of them have been fast balls. So, you’re ready. You’re going to time it. You know what he’s going to give you. And Julio Rodriguez did not miss it. Josh Naylor takes a 100 mileph on the paint for the right side of the black make it 0 and one. So home runs of plenty already as we sit in the bottom of the first just two aside. Julio Rodriguez gives his team the lead with a two-run shot. That was from the Rosa rain walk and now 93 on the change up. Check appeal down a third. He did not go. So for Naylor again, as I mentioned, about two and a half weeks before the deadline, he’s got 21 stolen bases. He’s already got 10 with the Mariners. He hasn’t been here all that long. Here’s 92 and that same spot for 101 to make it strike one. Now it’s one and two. So again, he’s trying to find that paint, but the leverage is it’s 103 on the fast ball. Yes, it’s 92 to 94 on the change up, but it’s been a two pitch pitcher here. So, that do give that does give you a lot to be able to sit on. And for hitters that can essentially time the bullet out of a gun, is really going to have to find something on the black or jam to get guys out. 101 was a grand cut. We followed straight back amongst the catcher. We’ll do it again at one and two. So, Bole’s already had to throw a lot of pitches as he sits at 20. JRod’s got the first set of damage here for the M’s. 92. This is shallow center field. No problem to make the catch for Peters as it’s two out here for the Amps. Suarez is going to bet fifth today and he’s up next here still playing third base as usually does. Now he’s the one guy since it reacquired at the deadline that has not hit. He takes a ball, but it’s called the strike at 100 on the left side. Black, but he’s hitting, I believe, 087 some bingo numbers since he’s been reacquired. He does have the one home run in this one fouled in the same spot off the change up, making nothing of two. Now, that will not be talked about as much if the Mariners continue to win games because you figure somebody like Gino who’s got 37 bombs will pick it up eventually. I imagine he will 100 this one towards his fist. That’s definitely going to sting the hands up a little high, but he’ll stay alive here at 0 and2. So, Bole is going to have a tough first. Even if it’s only two runs of damage, it’ll be at least 25 pitches already thrown. as he requests some new seams on that baseball again. Drew Drew Rasmmanson was the starter last night who throws that same heavy hit and goes down again. So Raleigh and Suarez strike out, but Julio Rodriguez two-run jam makes it 2-1 as we go to the second. So, hey John, looking it up. You want to know what makes it more impressive about about especially during the 2015 season? Go ahead. Greg Holland. So, fun fact, he pitched in the regular season, but he did not pitch in the postseason because this man was throwing and getting outs with the torn UCL. He forgo Tommy John’s surgery to pitch in the 2015 season. Man, oh man. That’s why you have some of those other things that you speak about to try to help to get through that all the pain. That’s some heavy stuff. But I can’t imagine before go Tommy John and still have the picture that how much that would have to hurt. Oh, it I mean and so pretty much in the during the postseason it was still HGH but it was instead L coach Shaver which I I I’m sure a lot of MLB fans they’re not familiar with that name but he was a number one he was a a first round pick for the Royals was going to be a starter but it just didn’t work out. They kept him on as a bullpen convert and he actually is credited with the win of game five of the 2015 World Series. I’ve seen a lot of Ho Cha in between the L Central battles between the Tigers and the Royals. And there were certain games where I thought he had it and there were certain games that he did not. And sometimes that’s just the way it works. Yeah. I got to um you know I got to sh my job within my job. I mean I I um I tend to have um interactions with a lot of high-profile people and I got to have a little chat with Mr. road shaver when he came when he came by and he said that there were a lot of days where he you know it just felt like it was just a walk around the bases for the other team because he never he could never find it. But when push came at the end of the day he’s still a World Series champion. Yeah. he was still part of a championship winning bullpen and uh you know throughout this I mean you know that I mean the starting rotation is was impeccable. Uh I’ll get into it later. I think we’re coming back. So Chandler Simpson’s going to ground out the second. No problem to toss over. He’s done. I was going to say for Chandler, 32 stolen bases, he’s batting fifth in the order for Kevin Cash. Again, he’s the one that ground it out, but he’s an absolute beast as far as speed. 24 years of age, but he’s not going to hit the ball out of the infield. He’s just a contact bat. So, we’ll see what ends up happening between this five, six, and seven on the part of the order as Hunter Fiducia will send this one back. He’s only hitting 188. And for Hunter’s numbers, he only has career 11 games played the 28-y old. So between six, seven, and uh eight and nine, sandwiching between Austin and Kim, I don’t think that there’s going to be a lot of damage done. Don’t want to speak that into existence for Mariners fans. But this just doesn’t seem like an a lineup that’s going to be able to do a whole heck of a lot unless you get Brandon L who already hit one in the top of the first and Josh Low to kind of spearhead this for this order as they do not get a swing on a change up on a one and two. He’s still trying to keep things going in the Root Sports broadcast booth. You got King Felix who’s up there as they’re waiting on a one and two. Cal Raleigh will give his sign another change up. It will not be any more close. Medusia will be waiting on a two and two again. Hassan Kim will be the next batter. 15 games played, 204, one bomb, three RBI, six walks, 15 strikeouts. He’s coming back from a long injury. Normally a 260 hitter. This one is pretty center cut. It will drive Kenzone to the wall. He will make the catch. That was it very hard. That’s probably the extent of laying one in there if you’re Logan Evans, but it’s two up, two down here to start the top two. King Felix is probably one of the better pitchers that I had seen throughout his era. Again, he’s a guy that can top out around 98 miles an hour. He’s got some deadly pitches and when he’s on, and there was many times that he was, he can be absolutely lights out, unhitable, and give you double digit strikeouts with ease. Fun fact, before Domingo Hermmon against the Oakland Athletics, I believe King Felix had the last perfect game pitch in 2012 before 2023. During Har, I I think you’re absolutely right. And I do remember saying that’s a great call by you and an easy inning for Evans. He gets it done through 25 pitches total of two. And we’ll go to the bottom second. I see the overunder according to baseball rotoire. I’ll let me get to that in a second. I believe it was set at seven and a half even though there’s going to be a lot of runs scoring today. And if that’s the case, it’s probably going to be all for the M’s. Right now, this is eight. So, the line has gone up a little bit. I imagine that that’s probably fair. Let me see if there’s any other scores that stand out. Blake Snell also is coming back from injury for the Dodgers. See if I can see his line right now. They are winning the all blue here is winning 2 nothing against Toronto and Snell’s got four innings pitched, two hits, nine strikeouts. So again, his second start since coming back from injury, three walks that he was left left stranded. Daltton Rushing is the catching prospect for the Dodgers. So, my guess is either Will Smith is injured or he’s getting a break. Let me see if I can find that for the Dodgers really quickly just to make sure. Yeah. So, Will Smith is going to get the day off today. Everything is good on that side. So, if you’re thinking about fantasy, didn’t want to scare anybody. I just want to look cuz I’m usually used to seeing him in the lineup, but he’s not today. Let’s get back to the bottom of the second. It’ll be 67 and eight for Dan Wilson’s squad. Palanco, Canzone, and Crawford. We talked about this before in between the additions of Naylor and Suarez. That’ll move JP usually leading off. You got Randy at Rose Arena there now. JP’s at eighth. Dom can zone still hitting .281. And then you got Cole Young who has been unbelievable of late. His center cut change up. Blanco just stares at it for whatever reason. Make it one and two. Six of 22 in the current 10game home stand. This is game number nine. Again, if the Mariners do win out these next two games, they will be nine and one in their home stand right now. If they lose out, they would be seven and three. So, good home stand for them. But you think about what, as I mentioned earlier in the broadcast, Tampa is presenting today. This is the game you got to get as 90 milesPH on the change. It’ll be fault on the first base line. Do it again at one and two. Mariners had some close games against the White Socks. Again, one of them a couple days ago went into extra innings. A lot of those, as I mentioned, one run, two-run games. But even if it’s an opponent that you think you should beat, if you can win those close games, those are the ones that you get more propensity in the playoffs. Not a lot. Well, I’ll tell you this one, John. Um, that is true. Especially true for my Royals considering all they’ve ever all they’ve played this year or close game. Yeah. And Ian, you can say you get used to maybe biting your nails, but when it’s every game, I just don’t think it faces you anymore. No, it’s just what what I had to hope is that the offense can score maybe one or two runs. It’s Believe me, it’s not healthy. You know, we now we have what looks like our primary bullpen lineup. If our starter can go six runs or five and a third and then we put in a filler, it’s Harvey Ersk and Steis. But, um, I can’t I can’t take this one one run two run stuff, man. You can’t shut out your opponent every single game. Just doesn’t happen. No. And it’s almost at the point where if you get to it and I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but if you see like a one game, you could have your pitcher go six, seven, eight innings, give up one run, you might still lose. Yeah. Well, thankfully one thing the Royals are doing is they’re not trying to shoehorn any particular any particular lineup. Okay, they’ve realized that Jonathan India has been absolutely crap at the at the leadoff spots in the All-Star break. Since then they’ve had and Michael Garcia is going to be is looking to be one of the more underrated gifts at the trade that line right now. Has he been providing the pop that you needed in a little bit or at least some hits so far? Let’s see. He’s had how many games since has it been since since the trade deadline for teams? Somewhere around nine. Eight nine. Yes. eight, nine. So, in those amount of games, he already has two home runs for us. And and he’s he just hits. Yeah, he hits. And that’s what this that’s that’s what this that’s what this team needs. It needs hitters. Blanco is fly out to Peters in center field. And now it’s 2-2 against Dom can zone as Boil’s trying to make sure that his pitch count doesn’t get anywhere close to 50 as we’re still one out in the bottom of the second and sitting at 38. Dom can zone has been excellent. Seven of 26 in the home stand as well. He’s been really good throughout the year. But this one froze him on a change bottom portion of the right box in the black. Make it a strike out for Domzone. And I’ll leave it up to JP Crawford as the last hope in the bottom of the second. It’s a 2-1 lead for the M’s. It’s a pair of home runs. Brandon Lao with a solo shot and JRrod the two-run jam in the first. Yeah, it’s good to see that some of that stuff is working out for you, Ian, because I look at it for the Tigers and I mentioned they were all pitchers and a lot of them have been bargain bin trash dump shopping, which is what it is. The one thing I can say that’s positive is Kyle Finnegan has already got two saves there for the Tigers. The former Nats closer, he looks to be pretty decent, but they need a lot more than that. as Crawford waits on the one-1. Another perfect pitch this time on the right corner of the box and a change up again. It’s just fast ball change up. That’s all it’s been. And Crawford have a little conversation back in behind there with the umpire, but really isn’t much to say. That was excellently cold. And now we’ll see if Bole can finish it off with pitch number 43. Try to keep this second inning quiet for both teams. 94. He swings late on a change up and Bo does the job. Both teams go one, two, three. So, uh, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this channel, but there’s a baseball guy by the name of Jolly Olive. He does documentaries as well as lists for baseball primarily. Yeah. I followed him since you told me about it. I watch it here and there. Yeah. So, he posted his newest video, the the best rental trades in MLB History 2.0. And one of them, I’m sorry, John, I’m gonna give you some PTSD here. Do it. Marco Scooter Road to the Giants. Let me tell you a quick story. So, in between one I one I don’t talk to anymore because this is a complete jerk. I’m like, all of you guys are I would consider best friends. And then my buddy Nick and myself in between the Texas Rangers, the Kansas City Royals, and the Detroit Tigers. What do we all have in common? We’ve all been decimated by the Giants, and I just don’t like the Giants. Yeah, me neither. I mean, dude, it watching the Royals play the Giants, it’s it’s the reason why Joe Buck is not really welcome in this city because all he did was glaze. Yeah, that’s all he would do. It was like the Royals weren’t even there. And if they didn’t have Madison Bumgardner against the Royals. Royals would have won the World Series again. Absolutely. If the Tigers didn’t get destroyed by Pablo Sandival in his belt that couldn’t even hold his damn pants, we could have won the World Series. And the gone had gone against the Rangers. They were down to the final strike even how many times? Oh my god. Nefaro Feliz, right? That was It’s like in between the three. I’m glad I get to talk to you because it’s just like Nick being a Royals fan. I like consider you guys besties. But like man, I look at the Giants. Every time I end up playing like MLB The Show or talk about I don’t even want to cover the Giants. I don’t want to talk about the Giants. And I know that sounds awful to be a journalist and I want to try to get everything across, but I just can’t stand them. Yes. Same here. You know, I mean, sure, what they did in 2021 was cool. Sure. You know, you know all the old men doing the doing their best. Hang on, I’m sorry. I have to interrupt this. Lucas Go just walked in the tying and go ahead run for the Padres’s. Oh god. Oh my god. Boston. Well, it’s good news for the M. And it’s good news for it’s good news for us, too. Look, any team that’s losing, any team that’s ahead of us that loses tonight, I’m happy. As a matter of fact, yep, the Phillies beat the Rangers. So, yeah, the uh the Mariners keep doing well on there in the AL West again. You got a pop out to Rose Arena. Ground out previously and from Cole Young and Logan Evans doing his job again. He’s given up the solo shot to Lao. Now it’s Diaz as we get back to the top of the order for the second time around. But he seems to be in cruise control here as Yandi will see a change up get spiked in the dirt, make it one and0. But go ahead with your points. Oh um I was just saying B you know, they I mean, it was cool seeing the Giants do that with all their all their old guys. I’m not going to lie. But, you know, it’s for the longest time, John, and I’m sure in Detroit sports history, there’s always there’s been a few of these. The biggest debate for Royals fans was should Mike Jereliv, the third base coach, have sent Alex Gordon to try Sure. for the inside the park home run. Looking back at it, I think he would have been thrown out at the plate. I would have to say the same thing. I wouldn’t uh change that at all. Again, you got Yanni Diaz draws a walk. It’ll be a splitter up high. Again, Brandon Lao was the one that got the run scoring going here in this game and we’ll see what he can do second time around is coming off of a solo shot. So, again, John with you alongside Ian Genji. Gracious to have him join me here, be able to say my voice a little bit and chat back and forth on this special night for Ichro Suzuki as 51 is at T-Mobile Field and retired in the stands. Again, you saw Jay Buunner, Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffy Jr., Isro Suzuki, a lot of the Mariners legends. You could see Nelson Cruz today. He wasn’t there, but he’s another one of those guys that I absolutely uh have nightmares about as a member of the Texas Rangers as this one will be handcuffed down the first baseline, make it 0 and2. So, Brandon Law, one for one with a home run. That was a solo shot at the top of the first. Again, all the run scoring has been in the first. We’re sitting on the top of the third at team Park in Seattle. I’ve not been there, but I have been to climate pledge. Hopefully get a chance to be at Team Mobile Park next year as this will be a curve ball. Be followed straight back and do it again still and two. So again, as Ian mentioned, couple of walks for Gita, those are costly. In the f in the fifth, Padres’s have a 43 lead as the M’s will be keeping their eyes on that score. That’s for sure. This 87. This is killed again. But foul, this time down the right field line. The home run was on the left field line. He was out in front of the curveball. The bat was a little too quick. Otherwise, that would have absolutely been gone. So, you got to find a way to put another wrinkle into his at bat here as it’s completely sold out as you imagine it would be. I see some King Felix jerseys, some Thai France, a little bit of everything sprinkled around and a lot of hats as you knew that this was going to be sold out for the ceremony today. Another 90 on a change up make it one and two as Lao tries to work his way back into a hitter count. 42 pitches in his day is Evans. Again, it’s unfortunate that Trent Thoron had uh on our last call to his ACL. That’ll be another one of those guys that the Mariners could have used in that bullpin that is not going to be done for the year. So, it’ll be up to Caleb Ferguson who is one of the new additions of the Pirates. And then Andre Munoz, Matt Brash, those usual suspects. Oh my god. This is right at JP Crawford and it’s easy for Evans again. Six straight retired. We’ll go to the bottom third. Two-1 M. John, we we talked about it, but we’ve already talked about it in this space, but I think it needs to be rehashed and brought up over and over and over again. Ben Carrington not only needs to be fired, but he needs to be forced to think of a new career path because what he well because what he just did to the Pirates should be in violation of the MLB code. I mean, you not only do you trade away multiple controllable assets from your pitching deck, you don’t trade the guy and the one controllable asset you don’t trade away is the guy who’s going to be gone in a couple of years. being Mitch Keller and you hold on to three guys whose contracts expire at the end of you talked about that it just makes no sense. I don’t know what they’re trying to do. And the and the one sorry to interrupt but and the one guy you trade away no two guys you trade By Falter to us for nothing no offense to Evis but he had five he had five innings worth of MLB MLB experience and then you trade away David Bard to the Yankees for a package of two catching prospects, one of them is the double A 24. And then you admit that you had access to better prospects in their system and didn’t take them. Yeah. Why the hell would you ever say that in front of the media? I Yeah, that’s like saying you’re you’re pretty much announcing the horn that you suck at your job. Yeah, that’s like saying I’m going to use a pharmaceutical research company here because you know that’s the that’s the field that my mom works that my parents work in for years. That’s like saying, “Hey, by the way, um, so we’re gonna go with we’re gonna go with this study right here because it’s we’re going to go with this study right here.” Now, we did look at other studies that have more that have more promise, that have more data backing it, but we’re going but we’re going with this unknown simply simply because we love simply because we have a gut feeling about it. Yeah, that’s not how you do things. You You have to do things in operation, as we’re talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates here, that that make sense for the long-term future and the shortterm future. And if you can’t address either one of those things and you haven’t been able to do it for God knows how long now, Ian, I question everyone else at the top that why you continue to allow this to happen. I mean, is PNC Field really getting filled up to the point where they’re making money just to watch Skins maybe once a week, but that’s it. Yeah. I And I I feel so bad for for guys like Tree and and Alec just for for Alec especially who just started watching this. You got the most electric pitcher in the game. that’s not named show Otani pitching for your team and you’re just counting down how long you’re just counting down the days you have him until he gets straight into the Dodgers or the Mets just like just like TK for me. Yes, I do realize again you got a walk here for for Cole Young and then a single for Randy Rose Arena. So you got two on already in the bottom of the third. So Boille is going to have to get out of this. But when when you think about it, as you mentioned for SKS again, you’re right. You can’t wait until he walks. I was going to make this point. Uh Ian, he hasn’t given up a run at home in over a month. What more can he do? Oh my god. Um yeah, I just You know, we we’ve talked about this before. As bad as Neil Huntington was at the end of his tenure with the Chris Archer trade, he built teams before the playoffs. If could you imagine it if it wasn’t Garrick Holt but Paul Skates pitching in those series against the Cardinals and those wild card games against the Giants and the Cubs. Let me inter let me interrupt you one second. Arian Cal Raleigh number 44 deep into the night of left field make it 51 a walk a single and a three-run jam and the M are in business. Go ahead. Aaron Judge, it’s really hard to argue against it. And I would have to give him that right now if it ended. Yeah. So, what I was saying Oh, wait. Hold on a sec. I’m a little bit ahead of you. I think something’s happening. Oh my goodness. Tulio Rodriguez two for two. He smokes a live drive out of here. It’s 61. Yep. I was going to say, thank you for that. You are a little bit ahead. I was able to. Man, oh man. These boys are uh swinging the bat and having some fun. That’s what happens when you make some moves at the deadline. In a matter of significance, you can do things like this. Paging the Tigers, man. Oh man. So now Josh Naylor, can we get back to back to back? This one. He goes up toward the hands. I’ll follow to the first baseline. Yanni Diaz really giving us a look, but this will go in the crowd. So backto back pickups of the Trident. Holy cow, he already had it in his hand. He just hands it right off to Julio. Says, “Here you go. You got two in the inning. That’s already four more runs for Seattle.” And I don’t want to say this and be hyperbolic. Again, I’ve been using that word over the last couple weeks because I feel like I have to because this lineup looks so good. But with the additions of Naylor and Suarez, you deepen out there. You go ahead and you pick up Ferguson. And from the bullpen, Jerry Dotto has done an excellent job. You give this lineup length, you know, you got some guys like Kell who’s going to continue to do some damage. Julio Rodriguez is going to percolate at some point. You got Josh Naylor stealing bases. You got Cole Young breaking out one through nine. This is about as good as it gets. And yes, I know you got the Dodgers, you got the Padres’s, some of these other teams. I’d put that M’s lineup up there with them right now because they are nasty. Yeah. You know what? If the Royals don’t make it to the wild card because it’s gonna be a tight squeeze. John, look, I respect you as a division rival, but I’m going with the I have to go with the Mariners. I’m sorry. It would be so good for baseball for the Mariners to win a World Series. You know, it would I completely agree with you. I I’ll be honest with you and again I would never be disrespectful toward you or the Royals or anyone else in the division because I feel the same way as you do and between both of our teams but I thought the Tigers overachieved way too much in the first half. They don’t look to do anything legitimate. I want to see this team do some they look really good right now and I know it’s about what happens in another month and a half or so but we know about the pitching staff. Starters have been elite. Now the lineup has been added to. You still got Munoz in the back end. They really have everything they need. They just got to go out and get the job done as Gino takes a four pitch walk. It’s the second four pitch walk of the inning after two home runs. And Bole, I think Kevin Cash is going to have to come out there soon unless he just wants him to eat it today. Yeah, I can’t look at this realistically, Ian, and say that I’m not angry being a Tigers fan. I understand what they were starting the year, but for them not to do anything after having the best record for the first three months of the year, quite frankly, it pisses me off. Yeah. I you know it’s it’s honey John because um because where I was at the Royals fan you know when they traded Cam Dei for Adam Frasier when they traded him to Pittsburgh I gota admit I was I was a little niffed because I’m like what what are you doing? You know you you’re not going to make the wild card this year. you’re not going to go anywhere. And then they trade for Randall Grim Chickic. And I’m like, what are you doing? And then they sign Lugo. They extended him. And I’m like, okay, okay, so Lugo’s not leaving this off season. And then they trade, as much as it hurt, they traded for me to they traded Freddy Fer mean to the Padres’s for a very high price. I don’t you know casuals will look at that trade and think you only got two pitchers. No, no. This is too stark. This is two starting caliber pitchers with control. And I know and from the Mason Miller trade, I know we didn’t see Leo Dere or Leonardo Dere, whatever his name is, the shortstop for the Padres’s. He’s a switch hitter who was 18 years old and he was the number three prospect in all of baseball. They also had to give him up for Mason Miller. Padres’s took some big swings. And I’m not saying like you did, you got four elite guys in the bullpen. You got a good lineup, but they paid a heavy price to do what they wanted to do this year. Yeah. And then, you know, then the Royals, they they needed a little more oomph. They just needed something to stabilize that outfield because look, again, we don’t disrespect players over here, but when your best hitter in the outfield is Kyle Isel, a guy who’s mostly known for his defense, there’s a problem. Yes. No, you’re absolutely right. I I agree with the way that you said that because he’s not known for his bat and that guys have certain strengths. Again, you’re right. You’re not being disrespect. That’s what he is. And when you have that, that’s why you had to go ahead and make the move for Mike Stripsky. Somebody’s got to bring some thump and drive in some RBI. Yeah. and and yeah, there was going to be there was going to be a bit of a price to pay for a guy like Shrimpsky. You know, they gave out their number 20 prospect, a a guy who’s likely going to be a starter for them if it works out if it works out for the Giants, a guy named Junior Partee, right? You know, but you know what? That’s what the red they got that trade in second like minutes before no seconds before before the deadline ended and they paid a price for it. So far it’s looking great. Yeah. I would always I don’t want to say always, but I would I go 90% of the time. If you’re going to try to do something in the deadline in any sport and you feel like you’re in position to go for it, either go for it or don’t. Don’t try to do some half measure. That’s how I That’s how I look at it. I will say this and I I mean this wholeheartedly. I feel like what the Tigers did this year in the deadline will go down as one of the worst decisions in history of Detroit sports. And that’s including our head coach Marty Mortonwig taking the wind and things like I’m serious. The Tigers really fumbled the bag. So go for it or don’t. You know, I before we we talked about this before they extended Luggo, before they did all that, I was telling you, you know, go all in and talk to the Royals to get Lugo. Yeah, you did. And some of their bullpen arms. Yeah. And I agree. Even even if you’re Scott Harris and the rest of this the staff and alongside AJ and you say, “Oh, it’s too price too high of a price to pay within the division.” I don’t give an F. You go out and you get guys that rewarded you, especially for the team that rewarded you through the first half of the season. Because you know what happens when when you don’t make moves like that? I think you demoralize your clubhouse. It’s the exact opposite of what the Mariners did. That energized their clubhouse. Hey, you just showed us you believe in us. Now, let’s go out and win something. If you’re the Tigers, you just say, “Oh, you didn’t even help us at all. You didn’t add anything.” Man, I I don’t know. I mean, you want a great example. I’m sorry, we’re we’re back in the X, but you want a great example. The Cincinnati Red Brian Hes at a bit of a discount because Ace has not been what he was, but they traded with the Pirates in the You’re right. Thank you. You’re right. And now look at that. The Mets are free falling. the the Reds look to be somewhat consistent in in their winning ways and they’ve got a real shot at getting into the wild card. I you know what you talk about the Mariners in the American League. I’d love to see the Mets in the National League. I love watching LA Cruz. Let’s let’s have some fun. Let’s get some of these teams in here that haven’t normally been in there if our teams don’t get in. And I I know I got action to call here as another ground out was given in alongside for Josh Low. Now it’s Junior Camroero. He’s another one of those guys. We watch him for years for the race. Hopefully they hold on to him. But when you think about I don’t want to lose my train of thought here, but for some of these teams we don’t normally see, but I wanted to mention this for the Tigers as well. I don’t think the odds have changed over the last week. If we want to make some money, Ian, I think we might need to go in with this. Maybe an Alec as well because I don’t want to leave him out of it. Right now, the Guardians are plus 2500 to win the division. Well, now the lead’s down to five. Might as well put some money on Cleveland because guess who plays six of the last 12 times of the year? Detroit and Cleveland. Detroit could have their league gone by the start of September. Yeah, the divisions out of the had the picture for for the Royals and they’re look it is strictly wild card for us right now. And you know what? If if the um if the Yankees want to keep falling over themselves, you know, I will gladly. God, you know, that would be so funny. Please, it’s it’s like that one. It’s like that one. Please, please let this be real. It would be so effing. Now, we just saw something in this game that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Junior Camero’s bat shattered toward the shortstop part of the field and it fell into the ground like a lawn dart. Thankfully, nobody was spiked from it as it goes to three and two count, but he pretty much planted it like a flag. Get a good camera shot there of Ichiro and his wife. He gets a chance to look on again. He’s part of the day-to-day operations as far as the players getting ready. Good swing and a miss off a curveball. Logan Evans. He made Junior Camroero spin like a top and he got two outs away here in. Let me make sure I got this together in the fourth. That’ll leave it up to Chandler Simpson again as everyone’s going to get whined and dying here because I was going to get plenty of shots as he should. Again, for Chandler, he’s not going to really put this ball out of the infield. But you want to make sure if you’re JP Crawford or Cole Young, get to it quickly. make a nice easy accurate throw over there to Josh Naylor. Otherwise, Chandler is going to pretty much beat out an infield single. It’s 287 again. No home runs, 16 RBI, but he is sitting. Let make sure I pull back up into my notes here at 32 stolen bases in 68 games. So, this is game 68 today for him. That is elite stuff. You could probably see if he gets everything going in a full season. as this is a Q shot, but this goes past a dive in Cole Young. He’s going to be at first and a threat to steal for second, but you could absolutely see Simpson get 50 bags in a completely healthy season. Maybe even 60 because he’s got that kind of speed. Are we talking a Ricky Henderson type? Uh, you know what I mean? No power, Ian. But as far as speed, yes. I mean, LA de la Cruz has what 60 65 usually. I I think I I I could say that Simpson could probably get close to it. He’s one of the faster guys in the league for sure. Now, Fiducia doesn’t have to do too much, but if you’re Logan Evans here in Naylor, you want to keep a quick eye. Again, it’s a short tenuous lead and this was a little bit of a pitch out. Make it 2 and 0. It was a knuckle curve on a pitch out, but we’ll see what happens here. You have to imagine he’s going to go because Vidushia again only career 11 games played, 25 at bats, so there really isn’t a lot to be said. Sitting 176 in the season so far, but it’s not enough of a sample size, but you don’t want to also get too far away from count leverage. It’s 2 and 0. Cal pitch out. He’s out. Cal roll. He gives him the hose. They knew he was gonna go. They pitch shot for Cal Raleigh. The big dumper does it all. And he’s eliminated from first base, you know. Okay, here’s where I’m a little confused because if you’re seeing them pitch out to a left-handed catcher, why would you why would you still steal when it is very likely they’re going to walk? It was a three count, Ian. It makes no sense. I agree. Yeah, there was um let’s see here. So, so when you’re looking at, so when you look at the teams that are currently in the playoff picture, that being that including your Tigers, you got you got the Astros and the Blue Jays. But and now the Blue Jays, I mean I mean John, I think the only the only explanation I have for the Blue Jays is the phrase talent finds a way because I really can’t pinpoint one particular thing that changed for them that resulted in this me this meteoric rise because their rise happened before the deadline. Yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know. What’s your take? What do you think changed? I don’t see any extravagant numbers for Vlad Jr. Bob Bashett’s doing his normal thing. I know Alejandro Kirk is good behind the plate. I’m going to have to look at their numbers here very quickly to kind of tell you that. I just want to see if anything catches out in front of my eye. So, George Springer’s got 18. Addison Barger, who they just able to call up again. So, that’d be one. The 25-year-old has 17 bombs, 268. So, didn’t have him last year. And really, that’s all I see because I’ll be completely honest with you, I could say Ernie Clement as well. 287, that’s good for him. But Anthony Santandere, wasn’t he supposed to be one of the big pickups? He’s on the 60-day IIL. He’s hit 179 this year. He did absolutely nothing. Yeah. I mean, that was one of the outfield targets that Roy lost were really pushing for JJ’s that it jerked the profile. Oh, that would have been an absolute disaster. Good lord. Although, but you know what? But it wasn’t much better considering we started the we started the year with freaking we really started the year with Hunter Renro in 2025. You you mentioned that quite a bit and you hit the nail. He hit the bullseye on that Ian when you ended up bringing that up because you’re absolutely right. I’m going to see if I find anything else in the bullpin that stands out because I know Jeff Hoffman was their big piece. His RA is at 450. It’s not Max Scherzer. It’s not Chris Basset. So, yeah, there really isn’t anything that I can pick up on numbers-wise that makes a whole hell of a lot of sense for the Jays. So, it’s really just a collective effort. A collective effort. And I would have to guess from what we talked about previously, a little bit of a drop off here for the Yankees. Yeah. Wow. because the Red Sox have been better since they got rid of Devers. I mean, Red Sox have played some good baseball for the most part. I know he had those walks from Gito as we talked about today as JP Crawford waits on a full count pitch. Now, Bole’s still out there. He’s had a rough outing. He’s been up six runs, given up three tanks, and he has two pitches that he throws. So, when you’re a two- pitch pitcher, if you’re not Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies, probably isn’t going to work out for another walk. That’s the third one of the day. JP Crawford gets a free pass to first. Yeah, today I saw Charlie Morton, the 41-year-old, get absolutely rocked, giving up hanging curve balls over and over, and I wanted to uh get the toaster in the bathtub. So, I I don’t know. I don’t know how much more I can watch with that stupid team, but it’s what it is. Cole Young when I get set to dig in. Thankfully, I didn’t record that on the recorder, but it’s on the space. 0 and1 as it sits for JP Crawford at first, but I got to say it as it is. Don’t even get me started two years from now on the Red Wings. I already said I’d go nuclear. So if that if that doesn’t and I promise you I will between you Cooper Alec it’s going to be it’s going to be absolute flames. Go ahead. Ask if the Lions somehow win a Super Bowl will you be a little more will you be a little less a little less uh I’m going to give you my honest I’m always honest. I’m gonna give you my honest answer that I can. The Lions have been so miserable my entire life. I’ve seen 06, one and 15, two and 14 that I never was a football fan. They made me not like the NFL. So, I don’t care about the Lions that much. I’ll be happy for the others, but really my as JP Crawford gets a stolen base. Really, my mindset is on the Tigers, the Red Wings, and the Pistons. Is that fair to you? But I mean, that’s just how it is for me. Yeah, that’s that’s fair. It’s just, you know, I’m a guy you know. All right. So, being in Kansas City, it’s it’s me, Casey, everything even. But I was actually I was actually in the same boat with the Royals. I mean, they were so bad they were never talked about. And then 2014 and 15 happened and I and I got hooked and right I you know I watched at the right time even though I don’t remember most of it because it’s been pain up until last year. Right. But no, I I completely understand that. Although look look I’m gonna be real right now. Sure. Why? While maybe not doing all he can, he got to your goalenders. He got some depth for for the lineup. This is on the players now and the coaching. I do not disagree with you at all on that statement. I because I because you look at it in March and you go, “What the hell’s happening with this team?” You lose 10 to 12 again every year. They go to March. Full count pitch here for Cole Young. He takes a hundo and follows it straight back. Boy oh boy has this kid been so impressive and the M are gonna have him for a long time. You look back into his age group range. 22year-old rookie again for Ben Williamson third baseman 24. He’s going to get some more time but not right now because they traded for Gino Suarez as you wait on the full count. That’s another walk. back-to back walks. And Joe Bole, you got to be waving the white flag, you think, here at this point as the bullpin now finally starting to get warm. It’s Mason Montgomery, but it’s two walks to start the bottom four and it’s already 6-1. No, I agree with you. It’s it’s on the players and you and I know we can talk about as I mentioned with Chris Illich and being cheap and I I get all that, but you got to find you got to find a way to make something work at some point. I mean, the Pistons are making it work. If the Pistons want a title before the Red Wings do on that side, I I mean, I’ll be ecstatic. I’m totally a Pistons fan, but I mean I’d be Come on. The Pistons were horrible. They had Josh Smith, Charlie Williams, and Ben Gordon. Not to mention you paid Monty Williams how much money for one for basically one year of coaching. You paid Monty Williams almost triple digits to coach. Now he’s sitting on his couch eating flaming hot Cheetos. He’s still getting he’s getting paid for the next like four years. He doesn’t he doesn’t have to do a darn thing. Randy Rosena is winning on a 2-1 again. That was a center cut change up and it’s a couple walks in the inning here. Randy Rosena. I’m not going to be shy enough to say this. I think the Mariners can get it to a 10 spot in this game. Joe Will is really going to figure it out because this is a wild cut for Rose Arena. He wanted a fast ball. He got a change up up toward his dome. Now it’s two and two. And we’ll see what we get here. He wanted to go for the downs. That’s just what I was calling there. Bulls at pitch number 87. I don’t even know if he’s going to get past anything more than the fourth as there’s still no outs. 100. He goes down and gets it. But this is a pop up toward Yanni Diaz. No problem. As they finally get the first out of the bottom of the fourth. Quick question, John. I think Yeah, I think they’re I think Yeah, I think Oh, rally coming up. Yeah, they’re Yeah, they’re pulling. Are they? Yeah, they’re they’re not even giving a chance for Joe Bole to go up against Big Dumper again because the last time it was him and JRod and they both took him deep. So Mason Montgomery is coming in. We’ll go to break. Yeah. So the um So have you ever seen have you seen the movie Air? The story behind the story behind Nike signing Michael Jordan. Uh no I didn’t. I heard about it but I didn’t watch it. Okay. So to initi So some small spoilers to initiate the the signing Sunny Picaro who is the genius behind signing Michael of just going all in on Michael at the you know he’s not able to get a meeting with the family through through Michael’s agent, David Faulk, who if you look up David Faulk’s resume, he was one of the most notorious agents in basketball in in any sport. You know, you know how you know how people talk about Scott Forest in the baseball world? That was he he is the David Faulk, although I think he’s more well levelheaded and wellmannered. David Faulk didn’t really leave much to to the imagination, but There is a scene where after Sunny goes against David Faulk’s wishes, he goes to meet with the Jordans in person. And in the scene, the first thing out is you f you show up at the house. Let me go ahead and ask you something here. Are all people from from or from Portland this stupid I mean are you trying to ruin your career career in the house just into him in the most in the most out of pocket crash out tying you ever heard. I’ll have to check that out. That sounds very interesting. Sunny Vicaro, and I can only imagine this as you relationship with the Red Wings and the Tigers. If you fail to do this, I will make sure that no one from this agency ever signs with Nike and I will dance and piss on your And then he says, “Well, What if we do? What if we do um make this happen? Or in the Red Wings and choice guys, what if we do win a championship? What if we do win a championship? Dave Faulner and you you and I will be best friends for the for the foreseeable future. It’s the way it works. I think that’s a very appropo movie quote into something that’s in reality because that’s the way it is. Cal Raleigh swings and misses as Montgomery has to come out of the bullpin to bail out Joe Bole. Again, this final line won’t be done until this final out here. But right now, it’s three and a third, four hits, six earned runs, five walks, five strikeouts, and a three of six of those are in runs, three of those are tanks. So, Julio Rodriguez went back to back with Cal Raleigh couple innings ago. So, now two home runs and three RBI in this game. So, I should make sure I put that again in my notes, and I will. So, JRod has had one of his better games for sure as he does not swing. It’s 210 on a knuckle curve. So, back to back in that third inning as we talked about both to left field and left center. Just got it over the wall to Julio Rodriguez. Sismore was a line drive about 350 ft as he waits on a 20 99 just a little late falls it straight back in amongst the screen make it two and one so I wouldn’t say and this is my own scouting report that Joe Bole is a bad pitcher by any stretch of the imagination but that 085 whip that he had is going to take a big hit I mean it’s just when you’re a two- pitch pitcher it makes life really difficult if you don’t locate and he did center cut some of those fast balls. Yes, they could be at 101 and 102, but they’re in the big leagues here. If you throw those there, they get hit very hard. I don’t really think that’s any surprise and that’s why this score line sits at six and one with the Mariners still threatening after a couple of walks. Got a Rosena and a Crawford first and second and Julio just stays alive. I did get a piece of the home plate umpire but makes it two and two. So, pitch number 10 out of the bullpin here for Mason. We’ll see how much he goes in relief of Boille. I would have to imagine with the score line to where he is. If he can try to get a couple more innings out of here, that would be the least of what he could do. There’s another knuckle curve. This one in toward the hands at a 90. We’ll keep it going here. Two and two. So, I think his swing from what I’ve seen, especially from last week for Julio has been a little bit more on time. Yeah, the fast ball combination though between the knuckle curve on the hands is a little bit different to deal with, but he’s been on time and his swings have looked good. Out of 99 goes up and out of the zone. So, he finally punches out after a couple of tanks. So, a couple walks, but that’s all still 6-1 after four. you know, put it to you like this, Ian. I know you you talked about, you know, some of the hot air and some of the things that I’m probably going to be featuring if it doesn’t work out for the wings. I know Patrick’s got his own show that he uses every every uh day as far as for the hour and the happy hour stuff that he does. I’m not I’m not a radio jockey. I’m not saying he is one, but I’m not full hot take theater. I like covering games and kind of giving you the facts and bringing in what I see and try to give you a little bit of a retrospective at times. But there there will be times where I have to get a little bit heated and that will be one of those because I I try to save it for when it really matters. Yeah. I mean, look, it’s it’s perfectly justified because the Red Wings, the Red Wings have been in a Okay. When would you say the official rebuild began? Because there was a period where it was just cleaning out cleaning out the closet, so to speak. Give me Go ahead. Go ahead. Give me one second. I just got to look up the year. I can’t pull up the hockey notes in front of me because I think it might take too long. But I can pull up the uh year. Yeah, because I think I would you say 2000 2020 or 2021 was the official start when all the bad contracts, right, dried up. So you So the Red Wings have essentially been in an official four-year rebuild since then, and they’ve yet to make the playoffs. So I I might be off by a year here. I’m going to get back into this playbyplay in a second. I might be off by a year here, but 2016 for Steve when he came here. So the first three years don’t count. So 2019 is when the functional part of the franchise ended up happening about as this one goes fall for Fiducia. So 2019 and if you extrapolate that into now that is year seven entering. So it’s four years now for Eisman where he’s been able to build it up and make things matter. So this is his functional year four out of out of seven years. I think that’s where I told you as I have my expectations that this is where you really start pointing fingers and figuring things out because you’re right the first three years in from that 2016 that was that was a cleanup. You couldn’t do anything in the first three years. Anyone that was trying to criticize what he could do in those first three years is absolutely criminal because it was like the Ottawa Senators leaving their draft board at home. You can’t do anything with that. Yeah. I mean, it was him waiting until the Tony harsh, but the finals the the sins of Kevin Holland. Yes. trying to be basically being repented for, right? Because Ken, whether it was Mike, you want to have the 25 year streak of making the playoffs, correct? That’s fine. And that Mike Dillich want to hold on to that while he was still here. I get it. But you still had players like Henrik Zederberg and Pavl Datsuk that you held on to way too long for that you really could have got something for. These are dynasty level type players that you want to cup with in 2008. And Fiducia uppercut swing is going to stay fair. And that was very, very close. And that’s a long strike. Yeah. Yeah. And then let’s not mention the let’s also not forget to mention the very not misguided but the the the unhinged loyalty to Jimmy Howard. Oh my god. Yeah. But he’s supposed to be the savior and one of the best goalies in the No. He was what he was. He’s a decent goalie, right? old. Yes. You know what he was? He was to a better extent. He was camp Ward. Sure. He and Camp War were the bet were the same guy. Jimmy Howard probably a little bit better because I think didn’t he get two cups? Jimmy No, Jimmy Howard uh he wasn’t part of the 08 team that was able to get it. So Cam Ward definitely better than him. That’s for sure. Cam Ward got a cup cuz the last one in 2008 was Chris Osgood. Chris Ozgood’s got three for Detroit and he’s not in the Hall of Fame. And that still kind of aggravates me because I think that the Red Wings team for what they were and you can say you got Eiserman, Federov, Shanahan, I get all that. But dude’s got three cups and he was a big part of it. If he didn’t come back to help us in 2008, we wouldn’t have beat the Penguins. Yeah. Yeah. But Jimmy Howard, no. He couldn’t hold the candle that even Chris or any of that stuff. And Cam Ward, at least he got one for Carolina of all franchises. He deserves whatever he gets. No disrespect to Alec, but Carolina doesn’t win a whole lot. You know what though? I’m exceptionally curious to see what they are like because again for all of our talk about Rod Brenmore, I completely forgot they didn’t really have a They didn’t have a guy that put the fear in the other team. No. And they they just got into Delic. Or wait, was it No, sorry. Sorry. Not Nick Nickers. Nikolai. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. You got you got Nick Eers. You extended Stankin. You extended Blake. You extended a lot of these guys that are signed seven, eight years from now. So if you have a jersey is this one I believe is going to go foul again here for for Peters. That was already another shot that could have been this time on the first baseline but Evans now starting to get hit a little bit but these are foul. But yeah no they extended a lot of their guys that are signed for seven eight years. So if you happen to be a Hurricanes fan and you have those jerseys of the young players you get to hold on to them for a while. Absolutely. All right, let’s see here. That’s a painted pitch. Yeah, Peter is going to go sit down and grab some pine and look it up to Tristan Gray in the bottom of the order as that was an absolute perfect pitch. Make sure I have this correct in my notes. You got two guys named Tristan. And I had that both this. So I didn’t get that wrong. Tristan Peters and Tristan Gray. Now Gray will follow this one down the first base line and make it all in one. So again, just a single at first. That’s all there is. Logan Evans has looked really good. Again, it must be nice and I I don’t want to say this misleadingly because I’ve seen the Tigers with Verlander, Sherzer, Price back to backto back Sai Young winners and they could even beat Baltimore. But then you got Annabal Sanchez and Doug Fister played as with the Mariners as well as Evans able to get the job done again. But this pitching staff is very very good. It’s my first look at Logan Evans. He’s only given up two hits through five. We’ll go bottom five. still 61 m. Make sure I turn this TV down. Otherwise, I get blacklisted from YouTube as far as music copyright. Uh, let’s see what our scores are. Padres’s still have a 4-3 lead courtesy of those blocks that Ian mentioned. It is bottom eight. Padres’s at Petco. They’re batting. The Jays are getting spanked by the Dodgers. It’s a nine run, 10 hit attack. It’s nine-0. Yeah. You know, I just realized something, John. Go ahead. So, every year until Yeah. For almost every year, um, that man tree has had a tradition of making of of making a video on the Mets called Wool Mets. LOL Mets. And I thought this year the Mets were going to be saved, but but if they fall out the wild card after starting the way they have, it will be laugh out loud Mets. Right now, the Mets are 63 and 54. They’ve lost six straight and are 1 and nine in their last 10. I didn’t realize they must have looked away for a week and that’s all it takes because they’ve been back and forth with the Phillies all year, but they are on the struggle bus right now. And meanwhile, in the last 10, the Reds are five and five, right? So, they are right behind them. And good lord, for as much as they’ve fallen off, even the Giants aren’t that aren’t totally out of the wild card race. Now, you’re absolutely right because I’m looking at this right now, Ian. We were just talking about this comeback from the break as the Ams got four, five, and six up here, but the Mets one and nine in their last 10. Their wild card lead has gone down to two and a half. And that’s just because the Reds Metro played 500 baseball. They’re 61 and 57. And now the Giants are just four games back at 59 and 58. Cardinals four and a half at 5959 playing 500 baseball. Uh we’ll see. I mean there might be a couple teams below that that you could say that are out for sure, but you’re absolutely right. If the Mets do blow that, considering you got Juan Sodto and Francisco Lindor and a lot of other guys that they already have. I mean, there’s no excuse for them to not make the playoffs every year for the foreseeable as Josh Naylor get the set check back in on a one and two. He’s 0 for two today. 99. This was toward his hands. Still able to drive to left field. He got that ball past Simpson who’s got elite speed and he’s going to cruise in with a double. It was a shot that kept hooking down the left field line. He had to bounce it off the wall and Josh Naylor’s got his first hit of the game. He gets a double to lead off the fifth. This ball is up toward the catcher’s eyelids. I mean, this is like six feet up high and Simpson can cover a ton of ground. He just missed that off the top lip of his glove. That was a hooking shot that he could never find a way to get a piece of. And now Eu Heno Suarez try to get another RBI to his total as he swings and misses on a 98 mph fast. Yeah. You know, it’s it’s it’s one of those things, John, when players hit it to the opposite field, you don’t know what’s going to happen. you can predict what what could happen when they hit it to their whole side, but very often the ball does funky things when it’s hit to the opposite field because normally it’s hit off towards the end of the bat. And I’m sure you know this, the further it’s hit towards the end of the bat, the more movement it’s got. Yeah, that was a uh a Q shot to say the least that just kept traveling toward the bottom left away from Simpson’s glove. You’re absolutely right. That’s what I saw. Here’s a right to the shortstop throw over to first base for Diaz and Naylor going to have to stay put. It’ll bring up the former Minnesota Twin Jorge Palano. Now, he’s been better of late. Again, his first year with Seattle wasn’t all that great. again. Never going to get the seven eight plus war player that he was in Minnesota, but good switch bet nonetheless. And Naylor’s got nobody at third. It’s his 11th stolen base already for the Mariners. He’s played about 20 games. I don’t even know what to say honestly because I think a first baseman I don’t think is steals and Naylor is not the most fleet of foot but he reads exceptionally well and the Mariners do such an excellent job of taking at 90 feet because I think about it for my own team. The Tigers are dead last in stolen bases. I believe they have 31 because Bayz got one today in the loss of the Angels. Mariners just continue to get bases every game. Doesn’t matter who it is. It’s got to be more of a mindset. Go ahead. By the way, um I was I was gonna ask you, has Bay gone back to Bas has regressed the He’s gone back to he’s gone back to swinging at sliders that are 8 feet off the plate. Great. Yeah, the pumpkin and everything else. The time has passed. That whole team has done something that is just not representative of what they are. I mean, yes, they played above their heads. I’m not going to argue that. But I don’t was this one almost for the face of Blanco and they’re going to say that he offered. He was almost emergency hack, but that’s going to put him down. I was going to say for Riley Greeny and he’s got a chance to set the major league record for strikeouts in a single season. I didn’t even realize his I didn’t even realize his strikeout rate was that bad. He’s and he’s always seemed like a very dependable hitter. Yeah, he’s not been good in the second half. And throughout July into August, he’s hitting, let me I don’t want to ballpark this too much, but about 175 180. Yeah. Well, when you’re when you’re doing that, you’re just not helping anybody because he’s in the middle of the order. AJ moved him down to six with his recent struggles. And they’ve been platooning Carrie Carpenter, correct? Because they’re both lefties. But Carrie’s even hitting 220 against lefties. You might make the argument that Riley Green might have to sit a couple games to play Carrie a little bit more because he’s the one power guy that I always have a feeling that can do something. And it takes me back to yes, he didn’t win last year against the Guardians, but when Carrie Carpenter hit that shot against Emanuel Claw, I pretty much lost my voice. So that was uh a lot of fun. Kzone flies out the Simpson and a double stolen base no more. It’s still 61 after five. the um yeah I look I gota give I mentioned this before but so far when things haven’t been working at least recently the Royals have tried types things up. I mean, he’s not your typical leadoff hitter, but against righties and actually, yeah, mostly against righties. I mean, they’ll have they’ve had Mikey lead off. I mean, they had him lead off against Joe Ryan. That’s not an easy assignment. No. And of course, his first his first at bat he He puts up one of only three runs the Royals scored that night. Well, I will give credit and for uh coach coach Q and all that to give them credit to try to change some things up at least. I don’t I’m not going to I’m not going to talk anything bad about AJ because again I do say at worst always as a top three manager in baseball. You can only work with what you’re given. But when you got everybody slumping at the same time, how do you how the hell do you get out of that? You just you can’t there unless unless you have a situation like the other day where Matt Berling comes up and hits a three-run tank and gets his first of the year, he’s been largely hurt. Parker Meadows last year, who was a big piece of why the Tigers made the turn. I know the Twins collapsed, but Parker Meadows hits the grand slam off of Robert Suarez. you know that’s not there. Jav Bayz regresses Raleigh Green striking out. There’s no answers. And when when you didn’t also add to those answers in the deadline, you get to where you are. And I happen to agree with a lot of people that if you get to the start of September and if the money is still plus 2500 for the Guardians to win the division, now it’s down to five. Tigers had about a 10game lead after this week. It’s in Saturday now and it’s down to five. So, they’re just they’re losing ground like crazy. That’s what happens when the Mets get swept by the Guardians and Tigers can’t they lose two three to the Twins, you know. I was surprised. Look, I get the pitching was a big concern for the Tigers, but I mean, you had the Royals only had to give up their number 20 ranked prospects as a rental. And I know I’m going to jump into this because I want to have this conversation with you as Evans walks with Diaz. But as a 6-1 game, I want to have this conversation while you’re in here because I’m enjoying it. But let let me think about it this way because you said they didn’t have to give up much. You talked about Kebran Hayes. You made a great point that was within division. I present to you and I know it’s in Ala but Spencer Tolson first pick was it three four years ago. Casey Mai pick number three. Riley Green in the top 10. I think it was pick number seven eight. Three guys who have had moments. I’ll be fair and say they’ve had moments but not not anywhere close to allar. Yes. Rley Green’s been one but not consistent. Mai was added in because the people who left so I don’t count that but they’re not they’re not consistent allstars and sin strikes out a ton guys that had probably 240 250 at at best sometimes no power a lot of strikeouts my point being you got to pick number one pick number three pick number seven not everyone’s going to be Mike Trout and Bryce Harper but you got to hit on some of these just because they’re everyday players I don’t hair. They’re still jobbers at this point. And now Scott Harris is going on and some of these other guys, whether it’s Max Clark or whoever pans out, and they’re acting like these guys are the next coming of Jesus. We already saw the other three are not. So, forgive me for not believing in these prospects of being the next Mike Trout because I’m not seeing it. Now to okay to be fair to Spencer Torqulson if you look at the if you look at the draft class that is that he came out of was it weak I mean listen to these names right now. Okay so Torlson at the top you had Eston Kirstad for the Baltimore Orioles he has been MIA what feels like all season. Yeah. Uh Max Meyer for the Marlins. I think he just got to the show recently and I don’t know how well he’s been doing. The Royals had the number four pick and they took Asa Lesi. John, let me just save you the analysis. Okay. He is. If you want to talk about a bust, I don’t know if he I honestly don’t know if he made it past a ball. So, let me take your point in because I’m I’m glad we got this point counterpoint. It’s probably too early for me to talk about anything in the draft class then between Green To. Well, so, so here’s the other. So, Austin Martin for the Blue Jays, he’s playing for Minnesota. He’s a starter in shortstop. You know, Emerson Hancock for the Mariners. Truth be told, yeah, he’s a starter, but he was the number six overall pick, but I don’t know how integral he is to their starting rotation. No, he’s he’s been hammered a lot of times. I see. Yeah. Um, Nick Gonzalez for the Pirates, second baseman. Sure, he he starts once in a while, but can you really say he lives up to that number seven moniker? I I don’t Your point’s very well taken. So again, I will I will give them a pass at least for a few more seasons. Let’s Yeah, I should be fair. If we’re talking about the first round, I think quite honestly the best guys, the the best players who have come out of this class in the in the top have been a really you can only point at three guy at three guys that being Jordan Westber, Garrett Crochet and Pete Crow Armstrong. strong and one of those guys being PCA found his found his you know found his footing with a completely different team than the team then that drafted him. Yeah, that’s full setting and I like that. Yeah. Now let’s see. You said Mai is in green. Yeah. What uh was was Mai drafted before or after Torque? before Torque. I think it was the year before. Okay, let me go ahead and look at Let me look at that. Go ahead and call the game and I’ll um I’ll tell you. So, Logan Evans after giving up a single and moving Yanni Diaz to third. His day will be done. It’s one out in the top six will step aside here. Caleb Ferguson going to come in. is will do battle against Junior Camire. Yeah, I don’t want to steer you wrong, Ian. I think in between Green, Torqulson, and Mai, Torqulson was probably the the latest pick, I believe. And then I think then it was Mai the year before and then it was Green the year before. Somewhere around there. They’re all sandwiched in very close. Let me look here. I’ll I’ll tell you right now. Actually, Green was um was drafted in 2019. So, he was drafted before Torque. So, is it Green M and then Torque? Yeah, 2019 for Green uh 20 2018 uh for for M. So, was the first out of that trio? M’s green torque. Okay, got it. Yeah. So, so after my I mean, Jesus, I gotta repeat. I mean, dude, all of the players drafted after wise except for Alec Bomb, they’re all with different teams. Oh, boy. So, are all these Well, I again I I do want to give it a couple more years because I think your point was well taken in the previous, but hopefully not all these draft classes are bombs. Yeah. Okay. So, after Let me go down the list here. Um, actually, where are we at in the action right now? We’re good. I’ll cut in if I need to. Okay. Cut in if you need to. So after M you had Joey Bart, Alec Bone, Nick Malle to the White Socks, Jonathan India to the Reds. He’s with the Royals now. Jared Keln to the Mets at number six. Ryan Weathers, a pitcher to the Padres’s. Jesus, I don’t even know who the number eight pick was. Carter Stewart to the Braves. We haven’t heard anything about him. No. No. Sorry. Dress at the Ultra Athletic selected Murray with the number nine pick. Well, there was a reason why they really wanted him to play baseball. Yeah. And he said no. So, so they probably got um the Travis Swag to the Pirates. Yeah, he’s a B. He’s a bust. I know. That’s a bust. Grayson Rodriguez to the Orioles. He had a couple with them in the mangers, but I haven’t heard anything. We got to got to step in now. Junior Camero deep to center field and it’s a threerun shot off Ferguson. It’s a brand new ball game. 64. Wow. Well, looks like they may have life. Okay, let me keep going. Jordan, a short stop to the G. I think he got traded somewhere. Yes, he did. You know what was he part of the package for for Jose Bio? I believe he was. You got that correct? So Con and then Connor Scott for the Marlins. I gotta be honest, John, the only and Jesus, how did he fall to number 14? The only real um the only real um what do you call it? The only um um uh buyer remorse you can really have as a Tigers fan I think is is the fact that the the Mariners selected Logan Gilbert at number 14. But but with that 13 I mean including your guys 13 teams passed on him. So, can you really say inspired from Morris because 13 other teams said no? No. I think you bring you bring up a great point that make me feel a little bit better. Like they might not be superstars, but they are in the lineup every day and they’re actually contributing. It’s not day in day off. They they’re depending on every day to do something. I mean, so so the Oh, that was the draft that the Royals selected Singer. Yeah, he I’ll put Yeah. Uh, Singer took a little bit before he found his buddy, so he wasn’t a slam dunk either. And now Brady, I think, is a member of the the Reds, correct? Yep. I mean, yeah, man. There really isn’t any in terms of the 2000 and the other one. I mean, maybe you can say Shane Mlanahan and Chris Bouvage, but I’ll be the first one to tell you, John, Shane Mlanahan is looking like he may never pitch again. And Chris Bouvage is still dealing with the complications of Tommy John. Oh god. Well, well, actually, no. It’s it’s not Tommy John, but he just his season got shut down due to a rotator cuff injury. So, yeah, the 2018 draft, they’re really Alec B is I think you can say no. Logan Gilbert and Alec B are the two prospects that you can say have truly made it. Just I I can’t include Mlanahan and Bouvage in there because of their injury concerns. Christopher Morell, former Cub, pinched him for Paducia in the catcher spot. He strikes out, but the damage is done. Junior Camero, three-run tank, makes it 64 as the Mariners now will go to the bat rack. So, so in terms of the Alex draft classes, well, yes, the results haven’t exactly been appropo, he didn’t really miss on much. He really didn’t miss with the picks he had. He or no he didn’t make any crucial mistakes because all the guys that came after the guys he picked what were they were they all had to prove themselves. Yeah. No, you you make a good point on the draft. Again, we’re Ian and I are not talking about the trades and the values that that would be a completely different conversation that we would be on the same page. But Ian just has brought up some great points with those draft class between 18, 19, and 20. While they’re not superstars for any stretch of the imagination for the Tigers, they’ve been everyday players that have been needed. I think that’s very well said. I will give them a couple more years to your point just to make sure, but I think you’re already 99% on the right track of Yeah, it could have been so much worse. It really could have been. I mean, look, listen. Okay, so maybe there was a little bit of buyer remorse. Now, did Alex get fired before the 2021 draft? I believe he did because uh Torque was his last selection. You know, Alvao, the dad, Alex, his son, was a pretty good catcher, but Ala was the one that got canned and he had to because he was the one responsible for getting no value for JD Martinez and David Price and all the other ones that we had that were pretty much like for nothing. Oh, and he was also part of the Justin Berliner trade that got us Jake Rogers and two other players that never made Major League Baseball. So yeah, I’ve I’ve heard about those. Yeah, I’ve heard about those trades. That’s um Yeah, they were not exactly No. So So while and I think that’s why I think you made a great point, Han, because you could say he maybe almost hit on those three between my troolson and green. You’re absolutely right. like you didn’t make a mistake there, but that doesn’t absolve you. And you’re I know you’re not saying this, but it doesn’t absolve him from when you trade Justin Verlander and JD Martinez who took Chris Sale into the bushes deep in his return from Ka Park when I was still working at the local press and some of the other stuff there. I mean, those are treasured memories, superstar memories. I mean, what didn’t JD then go to the Red Sox and win a World Series after? I mean, he still had a lot of tread on the tires. David Price, I know he he got all that money from the Dodgers after, but we had backto backto back Sai Young award winners. Couldn’t win the series against the Orioles. And then he was also part of the decision-making that brought Brad Osmus here as the head coach instead of Ron Gardire, which I didn’t like because Ron Gardner, I know they didn’t want Jim Leland again, but he needs someone with more tenure and respect. And when I see Brad Osmus, let me make this quick story. When I see him as the bench coach for who’s out uh Aaron Boone in the New York Yankees in the All-Star game and I watched the Tigers go 0 for seven with four strikeouts and scoopable give up tanks in the All-Star game. I just blame Brad. Yeah. I mean, and there was Oh, man. You know, I the way you feel about Brad Osmus, John, Brad Osmus and uh let me let me say this really quickly. Brad Brad Osmus and Ken Allen are the same person to me. Yeah. But there was also if we’re just talking if we want to talk about our manager war stories, let me Okay. For a while it looked like it was just going to be another name in the long list. And then the Royals won the World Series and now Neios is forever is forever loved here. How do you go from Ed to Mike? That was bad. I was Okay, I’ll admit I didn’t know who he was, so I did my research. If you Okay, John, if you have any if do you know anyone who’s a Mets fan, they will tell you the absolute horror stories about Terry Collins and his bullpen management. Mike Matheni was so much worse. He was so much worse than the than Terry Collins could ever be. I mean, this guy, he was. So the way we the Royals would usually win games early on in the season was they would get a marginal lead kind of like how they do now, right? But instead of the starter going six or seven, the max they would go was five and then it would be the bullpen’s job to get the final 12 outs. That seems awfully taxing every night to do that. Yeah. And it was even worse because and this more so speaks to the fact that Dayton War in his final years did not know how to execute trades. You had either that or you just got incredibly unlucky in this one. Wow. JP Crawford is he’s JP Crawford right now. I’m gonna interject just for a moment. This is a 15 pitch battle to start the sixth inning against former Tiger Mason Engler. This is incredible. This is Yeah, this is one This is what baseball’s all about, people. Pitch number 16’s filed down the third base line. We do it again. Keep it going, JP. Okay. So, in the coordin season, the Royals picked up closer Ter Rosenthal. I think that name should sound a little bit familiar. This one falls in the glove of Hung Kim. A 17 pitch battle caught at shortstop from Hung. But boy oh boy, that was an at bat for sure. Yeah. So, we picked up Trevor Rosenthal, a guy who had had injury had injuries, an injury history up to that point, but was a stalwart. Yes. For the St. Louis Cardinal. Yes. He comes back and delivers and is delivering 100 mph heaters to the strike zone. They trade him away for a guy named Edward Olivaris whose only thing whose only aspect was his offense, right? His defense was crowded and Dylan Coleman who didn’t work out. That’s fine, right? But let me So with a core consisting of at the time it was okay. It wasn’t the best, but it was okay. You had Whit Marfield. You have Whit Marfield, Jorge Stair, Salvador Perez, and M and just a few pieces here or there, but you had but your first job as a manager is a 60 game season and you can’t do enough to get to win enough games to get into the playoffs in 60 games. God, that’s not surprising. Yeah, you can’t do that with the bullpin management that you talked about with me. I mean, you compare the two managers with Collins and then Matheni with KC, you could put Stevie Wonder in there and he’ do the same job. Yeah. And hang on just for hang on while you uh while you continue to cover cover the game. I am going to look this up so that people just understand. They’re going to look as Ian’s checking that out. They’re going to look on Mason Engler. And the reason why they’re doing that is because it was a 16 pitch battle with JP Crawford was a pop out to hust. And now Cole Young has just walked for the third time today and they’re checking in on the hands. Is gonna probably form some type of blister checking on his hands after throwing that many pitches. And now they’re making sure toward the right thumb and on the arms that he’s feeling good because he’s already had to throw a ton of pitches. It’s only one out in the bottom of the six. So, as they check on Mason, let me just go ahead and give you some scoring updates. We’ve gone to extras now between the Red Sox and the Padres’s. Red Sox are at the bat rack with the Ghost Runner on second, two outs. Dodgers are trying to get the final on against the Blue Jays. They got a runner at first and then everything else besides our game here between the Rays and Mariners is final. So this was the So this was Mike Mini and Kansas City in a 60 game season 26 and 34 but for fourth in the AL Central 74 and 88 the next year fourth in the AL Central 65 and 97 for that is his tenure with the Royals. That’s that’s shockingly bad. Yeah, Rosarena gets the friendly call there as Mason Engler didn’t get it all the way in the zone apparently. Make it one and one toward the right side plaque on an inside fast ball. He’s had a lot of pitches to throw here courtesy of JP Crawford. grand cut for Rosena to one knee. Try to go for the downs. He has been remarkably hot since July all the way through. Again, before you even get in July, Randy Rosena only had eight tanks and he’s already got 23. And from July and beyond, this one is off the plate. Here’s the fly towards center field. Gray tries to dive at it. He can’t get it. This is going to bring in some runs, I would believe. first to third. Didn’t get a good read on it. So Cole Young’s going to stay at third. If he would have got a good read on it, he would have scored. So he had to wait for it to fall. So this is a fortunate break. Even though it was missed, it was a good attempt for Gray in center field. But if Young was able to read that initially, he would have scored a run, but as it is, it’s still 6-4 with runners on first and third. Rosarena at first, Young at third. He’s at third part partially because of the three walks today. Cal Raleigh’s already got a tank today and he’s always in line to do it again, especially because Mason Ingler, it’s got to be a little bit gassed. And we’ll see now. They got some pitch com issues. And I wonder honestly for Mason if this isn’t just little chess to give himself a breath. 248 average, 44 bombs, 96 RBI here for Kell. He’s already added 43 to 44 now. And if he gets another one here, it’ll be 99 RBI as he’s waiting on the O again. Rosarena at first and Young at third. Dead center cut for Cal. Way fouled on the right field line. Would have been gone, but we’ll do it again. I mean, that hit me written all over it. And Cal was just a little bit early to put that down the right field line. Ever Stoic is the big dumper coming off a win in the home run derby and probably an MVP. If I have anything to say about it is make it one and one on a curveball that missed outside. Again, thank you to Ian for listening in all the way through and down the conversation and saving the pipes for me. Wherever Cooper Hopkins is, I hope he’s listening in at some point, having a a good time watching his team win some ball games. Spiked in the dirt, gets away. Here comes Young. He scores on the wild pitch. Make it to seven and four. It moves a Rosarena out to second. Okay. So, when um uh kill me off if you need to, but I found an article from May of 2017. It’s not much, but it pretty much tells you all you need to know about Mike Mini’s um bullpen management. When it comes to St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Mini, the bullpen has always been his weakness. If he isn’t overcooking Trevor Rosenthal’s arm, he’s forgotten about Tyler Lions in the other corner. And then if you look at some if you look at the Reddit question, what was wrong with Mike Mini? Someone who said three names to to show his incompetence. Kevin Zegris or Kevin Ziggy, Seth Manis, and Matt Bowman. Ever heard of those three? I haven’t. Why? Because Matt because Mike Matheni destroyed their careers by destroying their arms. Oh my goodness. That’s about as bad as it gets. They were worried that Jordan Hicks was going to be number four. Yeah, Jordan Hicks probably happy to be anywhere. I think he’s with the Giants now. happy to be the heck out of there because you’re right. You take those guys as you mentioned Ian when we brought up Matheni and for the former Royal and the St. Louis Cardinal manager. When you take your bullpin guys and you want them to go from fifth to ninth in a 162 game season and you’re already tag Yeah. you are going to mess up their career completely. Oh, and the you want to talk and someone said you want to talk about a quintessential Mikey moment. How about How about this? You are in a you are in a clash in 2014 NLCS against the San Francisco Giants. You are down three to one and you are playing and you are playing in the in the Giants stadium and it’s game five which means if you win this game you’re going back home for the final two games. What do you do? What do you do? I am going Mike Bethini. I am going to choose Mike Walka who hasn’t thrown a pitch in three weeks and has only ever had been in his career did a starter and I’m going to throw him in a high leverage moment as a bullpen arm. Michael Walker then gives up to walk and then Travis and then Travis in Chicago hits one right the Giants go to the World Series. Bing boom we know the rest. Yeah, that is Mikey. You know what that reminds me of? And I’m not saying Aaron Boon encompasses all of that, but we saw that last year in the World Series when Alec and I called that in the mix of Nester Cortez. Let’s bring in Nester Cortez. He hasn’t pitched in months. He’s coming off ACL. He won’t get any. Oh boy. He gave tank they watched. Yeah. Or or or the other one I think about Walter my old veteran son extra innings of the AO wild card game are upon us. You have a choice in front of you sir. Do you choose the white hot closer who is a Saun candidate that will all but lock down this half inning Zack Britain or you go for the mystery box and and choose ano Jimenez who hasn’t been good in almost five years. Choose wise looks like you’ve picked Edwin Carnos on three walkoff bomb. Yeah, the Blue Jays go to the ALDS. That’s what I’ll never understand. And I’m not saying I could be a baseball manager or a GM or anything else, but sometimes when you have the elite arms in the bullpin that a lot of these guys do, especially when you’re in the postseason, it’s not that effing complicated. You go with your best guy and you live with the results. Yeah. And of course, it’s just it, you know, any other any other pitcher than Zack Britain in that situation would have been questionable. But Baldo and Menz really really Kim is going to start things off in the seventh in the seventh spot. Josh Naylor gave it a look in toward the bench for the Mariners. He will make the catch just shy of that little fence. It’ll be one up, one down, top seven as we’re at T-Mobile Park. I’ll draw nearby Ian Genji. Thankfully, courtesy that saves my voice. I’m going to get a baseball call in this week on it retirement celebration as he’s got his number all set up. The plaque will be up there next year and then the Mariners will get set to do this again next year with the big unit, Randy Johnson. Again, both of those boys share number 51 and they will be both be forever enshrined in Seattle. So, that’s pretty cool. Tristan Peters will now gets to do battle against Bazardo. Again, last time he was out there, he was giving up some tanks. So, this is not out of the realm of possibility yet for the Rays. They’re only down 74. That is a courtesy call on the inside. Black will make it 0 and one. 0 and2 and two for Peters and 0 and2 in the count. Again, Peter’s gonna get the start in center field because it’s usually Jake Jake Mangum and left here for Chandler Simpson is playing left today. So, Mangum is going to get the day off. But the Rays, they’re going to have to do whatever they can to avoid the sweep tomorrow if they can. That’s a yaker of a knuckle curve right to the goal. right to the globe goes ahead and makes catch and two up two down you know it’s it’s funny you know I see people do baseball sporal quizzes all the time and for and up until recently it was always easy you know who was in center field for the race I’m sure even you I’m sure you can tell I can I can tell you that for the Devil Rays and Carl Crawford. You could serve him in every year. I loved watching him. Well, Carl Crawford, but but you know the next guy because he was there for well over a decade. Oh, yeah. In the mix of Kevin Kier. Yep. It went from Carl Crawford to Kevin Kmire. Now it’s it’s more Now it’s basically Well, who are we gonna stick there now? Right. seems like it’s been a different guy every year. Yeah, you’re that’s a good point by you because Tampa has had some cornerstones in the outfield. Again, when Carl Crawford was there, I don’t know how good of a major league career, but it was the current manager of the Minnesota Twins. It was Carl Crawford and Rocco Baltelli. It’s center field and right field, and that definitely uh takes you back, but definitely some names. Yeah. And um let me see. Oh, here’s a question for you, John. Sure. So, I’m asking you because the Tigers have had more postseason moments than the Royals have these past years. It’s not saying much. At least you won a World Series. Okay. Yes. But I mean, when I say more postseason moments, I mean you you got to see your team had some fun. I had some fun. Yeah. In those moments, have you ever seen um have you did you ever have your Hin Manz or your Michael Walker or your or your um your Nester Cortez mult? I got one. It’s from that same series against the O’s. And again, it’s Brad Osmus. But I told you about Verliner, Sher Price. They didn’t win and they got swept in the best of five. I don’t know how you get swept. Jabba Chamberlain, the former New York Yankees man, comes out of the bullpin and delivers the gas can and you light it up all on fire. Anytime he’s out there, game over for the other team. Yeah. Or uh or or was it or was it game over for the Tigers? Yeah, game over for the Tigers. The other team’s going to get walk-off celebration. Yeah. any anytime it’s Java Chamberlain, anytime the Tigers had to uh go up against Nelson Cruz when they played against Texas in the CS and anytime he played against the Giants. I don’t count the St. Louis Cardinals in ‘ 06 because it was rookie Verland or rookie Curtis Grannerson. Curtis Grannerson’s one of my favorite players of all time. on his baseball side and his jersey and and because David Xin just decided to have the post that’s fine the card the card I don’t have any disrespect to the Cardinals and you got prime Albert pull holes Tigers were never going to compete with that but with the Giants when you got Victor Martinez Miguel Cabrera and I I could I could blame Mike Ilich for this because again I love Mike Illich but it’s Victor Martinez, Prince fielder, Miguel Cabrera. What does that say to you, Ian? That’s three DH’s. And you can’t have Miguel Cabrera playing third base and exacerbating his injuries and getting hurt and losing part of his prime as Josh Naylor is going to get another double. He’ll be able to easily cruise into second base. He’s been so good. But yeah, he had that. He had some roster construction that probably wasn’t all that great, but she went for it. At least they went for it. At least like Seattle, they went for it. But I don’t know, man. I I hope in the next few years that some of these other prospects that Scott Harris likes now, yeah, he won a World Series with the Cubs. That means a lot. Would you come over for the Tigers? And I don’t want to be disrespectful of Tigers because there’s my own team. They won in 68. They won in ‘ 84, you know, before I was alive. I was born in ‘ 87. But in between all of that, you talk about the Royals having a struggle. Tigers have been a laughingstock really through the most of their baseball careers as a franchise. Just like the Lions, the Red Wings have their struggles now, but Tigers and Lions are they could shake hands with each other. Yeah. Swinging bunt from Suarez will be out at first. And Naylor’s got to state where he is Ian Seymour now the next bullpin arm for the Rays. They haven’t had a fun series because they’ve had to use a lot and Seymour able to plant in off the mound. And if you had to see that platform we saw last week for Trent Thor when he tore his ACL. They kind of had that same look on that leg but nothing buckled. He was able to get it over to Diaz who scooped it into the dirt. step off and use a disengagement to look at Naylor. And that’s probably something you got to do every time he’s on the big bats at this point as he’s got 11 bags already since the acquisition about two and a half weeks ago. Blanco sitting on an over three. This a rocket foul on the second deck and it’ll be 0 and one. Let’s get in some baseball scores here for you. If I can, I will refresh this. So, the only active game is the one that we’re calling right now. Everything else is unfinished. Big cut for Palanco. He doesn’t get a curveball. Make it 0 and2. Dodgers win 91. So, the Blue Jays finally drop a game in the AL East, but so do the Red Sox. So, they’ll stay right where they are. Padres’s win 54 and 10. Diamondbacks hold off the Rockies win 6-5. Phillies win again. As Ian mentioned this earlier, Rangers drop another game 3-2. This will be a huge shot right at the mount again. Seymour’s got a step off to the left. He’ll take a toss over. Naylor still tailored at second. Cubs win 91. A 13 hit attack. Two errors for the Cardinals. It is Let me go up to this here. For game one, it was the Braves winning 7-1 against the Fish and then they won game 282. So Marlins dropped both games. Brewers beat the Mets again 74. I believe that’s now seven losses in a row for the Mets. Royals, as Ian mentioned, they win two and0 two against the Twinkies. You got to beat them now because they’ve traded off everybody. Tigers can’t. Guardians win 3-1 against the White Socks who are still in freef fall mode after being swept by the M’s. The A’s pace the O’s. They win 113. And this will be a lazy fly ball the center. And after the nailer double no more. We’ll go stretch. It’s 74. Let’s see what else. Uh, Brewers beat the Mets. Uh, uh, Mets, uh, Mets fans are ready are preparing for another season of Apparently too, I got to mention this as far as the highlights today. If you want to watch something on MLB quick pitch, Jerickson Profar with an absolute robbery for the Braves in the first game. He’s able to catch toward the left field fence. Saw that A’s beat the Tigers 74. Joe Adell continues to stay hot as he would. Uh James would help win the Nationals win 4-2 over the Giants. Again, we mentioned with the Yankees 54 over the Astros. So, that’s going to help the M should they hold today. And those are all of your scores as far as what we got tomorrow. See if I can pull this up off the daytoday show starters. I guess they’re not going to do that on the ESPN app. I have to click on something else. But there should be some good games. The Cubs and Cardinals will be your Sunday night baseball game. And the weather is set for 91 degrees in St. Louis. So, it’s going to be hot out there. Well, f first game of the day is going to be Royals and Twins, the the rubber match for the series. Um, hoping my guys can It’s Ryan Burger versus Good Lord, Jose Arania still pitching. Yeah. Oh, that’s got to be a slam dunk for you. Okay, John, just go ahead and pencil it in as a loss because any pitcher that has an RA over five turns into a Sai Young contender against Oh, no. Dude, dude, it’s true. He made Quantrol look like look like Prime Burling. That’s always had been had been terrible up to that point. That’s always the most infuriating thing for me too as a fan. When you see a guy that you should absolutely light up, but then he always has a career day and I get tired of, well, you got to tip your cap to the pitcher. No, hit him. No. And then, God, let me let me see if I can find another um 98 on the outside. except for Cal because he was the most recent one. Well, that one I see Ian is on Roku, so hope they have access to that on a Fire Stick or anything else. So, that’ll be there and everything else will be as scheduled. And then again, we talked about the late night game. So, it should be some good ones. And then we’ll be getting closer to the NFL, college football, all that stuff’s going to be around the the corner very soon. Yeah, the um Yeah, man. I’m excit I’m excited for this year. I’m really excited for this year’s Chase. Let me there’s look they were going through for a 3B but it’s something to be said with how badly the Chiefs just got Molly walked. They’re looking to they’re they’re looking to come out with a fire. They’re looking to come out fiery again. I would say, because I’m not going to disagree with you at all, but I would say the Chiefs offense, I know pieces move in and out and you got to pay people and you get to that point when you’ve won and you don’t get high draft picks because you’ve won and that’s the cost, but the Chief’s offense didn’t look as good to me as it usually does. Win a win less year. Yeah. Oh. Oh, no question. But granted, you lose Rashid Rice week number three. You, you know, Travis Kelce is just not the guy you once was. Although, my god, he dropped like 25 pounds or something in this off season. He is skinny. like he is skinny strong right now. And but you’ve also got your your first round pick Xavier Worthy had to be thrust into action because Hollywood was out for most of the year. She rise was gone. So it left Xavier Worthy to try and help pick up the pieces and it was just and not to mention your primary running back Isaiah Pacheco was out for the entire year, right? So you had to take So you’re so you call up a Kareem Hunt that was sitting on his couch. Yeah. And he had been into game shape while the season was acting. So by all accounts so far, so this will be the first real game where where everybody is hopefully healthy by the time the season starts. That was an absolute robbery for Josh Naylor at first as he gets a diving catch on Brandon Laauo down the first base line after overextending the arm from the bat swing a couple days ago, missing some. He makes an unbelievable play to get Lao at first. You’re absolutely right though, Ian. I agree with all of those points and you’re essentially telling me that you got a healthier Chiefs team coming into this season who’s hungry after losing in the Super Bowl, which quite frankly from most may not have even made it. Probably shouldn’t have made it with all the other stuff they got now. They could probably come back and win it again. Well, there’s also Oh, and another Well, the other big thing they never had an establish left tackle, right? The second round rookie they had just it proved to be too much for him. The guy they had replacing him had a knee injury, so he was out. So by the end they tried the flyer option with Jordan Humphre but he was MIA. So at the end of the so in the Super Bowl you had a guard Joe Ty converted to a left tackle with an undersized guard next to him. And by under size I mean this guard against the Buffalo Buffalo Bills literally got picked up by Ed Oliver not not driven back picked up quite literally lifted offensively. So yeah, um revamped offensive line. Um receiving core is just is is just more experienced now. Uh running back should be a full strength and Patrick Mahomes. So offensively, I’m really hoping they get back to the light show. So after Brandon Laauo grounds out after the robbery for Naylor, Josh Law with a fly out. Mariners got one more time to add some runs and then we will go to the ninth. So how so how are the Lions looking or wait do you say you don’t really I I’m aware I don’t and I’m not I’m not like a passionate fan but I’m aware I follow because we we cover sports. So, I’m aware I follow it. That’s the I saw yesterday what happened during that preseason game, which was absolutely freaking terrible. So, I I I didn’t see the young man’s name, the 25year-old, but they did say that he was talking and was able to move his limbs, but I think his I think his last name is Norris. Norris, that you’re correct. Thank you. That’s who it was. And these guys they believe in might make 65 70k on the practice squad. That’s definitely not enough money to make when you could possibly be paralyzed. I don’t know. Hopefully Dan Campbell is going to give us more of an update or the Lions PR will do it. But it was awful essentially yesterday as I was flipping through it. I was getting everything ready for this game between the Tigers and not too. And then I see the what was it the Falcons or who did they play yesterday? They didn’t did they play the Falcons? Yeah, it was the Falcons. It was the Falcons and the Lions past like the 40 yard line that were all in a circle, all in a prayer on the knee and then I saw the ambulance and everything else go across. That was one of the scariest things I think you ever see because then they went up and they communicated with the NFL and Dan and Raheem Morris said, “Yeah, we’re not playing this game.” Well, yeah. I think that’s definitely the scariest thing since Definitely the scariest thing since tomorrow, right? Yeah, I remember Dear H. You’re right. With the Bills, um I I don’t know. I I I always say this. I know this be a little bit of a diet tribe, but I always say this for anyone that wants to get into sports. If if you’re passionate and you’re a really good player and you want to get into football, do it. I mean, do it if it’s what you love, but for all these professional players, collegiate, all that, you make your money. I would probably play for four or five years and get out. I I don’t want to have a long career if I’m in the NFL. If it’s an NBA, if it’s Major League Baseball, I know hockeyy’s dangerous, but if it’s any of that, I I would do that. But NFL, absolutely not. Ian, I I wouldn’t want to have a long career. I I I have to agree with you because, you know, has in a game where they still allow in a game where you’re on skates, which Yeah. for some, you know, I I could be wrong, but it just seems like getting while you’re ice skating is is a is more it just seems more dangerous than getting killed when you’re on solid turf on solid ground. Or or maybe because technically you’re not on you’re not on a flat surface, you’re on a skate blade. It just seems like it’s a little more dangerous. I don’t know. I’m probably talking talking at the other side. That was not a good call for the homeplay umpire on Cole Young. Make it 22 on a load change about outside. I get your point though, Ian, because it would seem that way, but in football, it’s whether the speed of the players and how big they are, you pretty much make contact and it’s legitimately like a car accident every play. It’s no surprise that these guys get hurt at the rate that they do and then you don’t even have guaranteed contracts, which is kind of scary. I understand as owners you might not be able to do that because you can’t hand out the money, but when you’re playing football, I don’t know how those guys do it. Here’s a full count from Seymour Young. Four walks for Cole Young. That is one heck of a stat line, but that’s what it is. This young man continues to impress. He takes first base again. His fourth free pass. Wow. Talk about talking about elite. You want to talk about elite plate vision. We seen him go 470 last week, Ian. And Cooper was in here and then four walks today and he’s got a lead defense at second base. I think the Adams might have somebody at second base and Cole Young that’s pretty legit. I know it’s his rookie season. You might figure him out later and this and that, but he looks to be quite a ball player. Agreed. So, Rainey Rosarena on the one-1 off the change up. Cole Young was able to get his first stolen bag yesterday and the behest of Josh Naylor said, “Hey man, if everyone else going to do it, you got to do it, too.” So, we’ll see what he wants to do. This one way down in the dirt and this is a good block to push it the way. So, Fiducia is no longer catching. I’m going to pull this back up in my notes and see what we got. So, it be Nick Forz, the former fish. He will finish it out. Between Fiducia and Forz, I don’t know what they have left in the race as far as their prospects, but what they have right now, Ian, is uh a bunch of hot garbage in behind the plate as far as what they’re going to bring for averages and power. They just don’t have the catching position right now. I mean, and I gotta be real with you. The last I mean, the last good race catcher that I can think of wasn’t even a wasn’t even one of the prospects. It was It was freaking Mike Sino. I was going to ask you that. Didn’t they have Mike Cenino as well like the Mariners did? They did. And he’s been their best catcher. Yeah. I can’t think for the grand I’m glad you brought that up because for the grand scheme of things in my mind in between the Rays or the Devil Rays before that catcher’s never really been a strength. No, because I mean you had you know I mean the you know the one guy I can think of is just Mike Senino because he was there I think he was there for the World Series. Yeah. And then add to that is kind of been a revolving door. Randy Wade on the full count pitch. He’s walked a couple times. Oh my goodness. What a terrible calling behind the plate. That was a few feet off on the bottom right of Rosarena. He’s not going to say anything because it’s a three-run lead for the M. You absolutely should have walked, but this is a friendly call for Seymour. Strike three. Yikes. Big yikes. That is a about as big of a yikes as it gets. Uh Rley’s one for four with a tank. And this is a courtesy take here for Kell on a high change up toward the left. You think he gets that again? This would be out of the ballpark. Make it 0 and one. Cole Young’s got his four walks. He’s still at first. M’s trying to add and he runs at the can. Still within the save distance on this one in toward the hands of a fast ball. Cal slashes it foul late. Make it 0 and2. Julio Rodriguez with a couple of tanks today. The M’s offense continues to hum. Evans was really good. You had a little bit of a situation for Ferguson with a three-run tank against Junior Camero, but that’s really it as this is a curveball spiked in the dirt. This will be saved by Forz. So, Young will stay where he is. So, they’ve gone through Joe Boell who’s thrown a ton of pitches and now Seymour in the mix as well. The Rays bullpin has to be shot throughout this two of the three game series so far. Cal Raleigh waiting on the one two. Not even close. Make it two and two. It’ll be pitch number 30 for Seymour coming up. Yeah, you got Tristan Gray in the ninth spot for the Rays. It’s hitting 077. Peters doesn’t have a hit and has seven at bats or whatever he has in total. And then you have the catchers that we talked about that don’t have much of an average. Quite frankly, Ian, this is not a raised lineup outside of, you know, Lao and Camero that really has any sort of danger in it. Yeah. I just seven runs on seven hits for the AMS, four runs on four hits for Tampa. And if they score four runs and don’t win, it’s probably not going to win the game regardless. 2-2 inside. And Cal, that was a ball. At least there was called correctly. And now we’ll see if he’ll get anything to hit here in a full count. So Young’s going to be off with the pitch. Julio waiting on deck if he even gets a chance. This is sand blasted fouled on the third baseline. We’ll do it again. Yeah, Mason Ingler, the Mason Ingler, the former Tiger, was the only other one with an inning pitched, one hit, one earn run. He had the six all occupied to boil when he gave up three tanks from three and a third. Now, this is a walk. He could have been bases loaded with the M’s for Julio. He’s already got two. He will get at least one more at bat. I don’t want to call my shot like Babe Ruth, but when you get a three home run game, that’s a special game. We’ve seen a handful of players get the four. But I’d like to see Julio swing big. You’re already up three. Why not go for the downs again? If he gets a a change up or something that he likes, this time he takes a a change up at 90. That was in the punny hole. It does not swing. Two bombs, three RBI, getting 254 on the season. 23 tanks, 65 runs batted in. Two for four today. He went way out of his zone there on a curveball. That was probably the most undisiplined swing of the game for him. Make it 0 and2. Now, in this game, in comparison to last week when Cooper talked about it, you know, Rodriguez had a tendency to go outside the zone, not be as locked in. He’s been more locked in today. Tanks do help, but see him going to get have good bat the ball skills. This one he fights off a little high. Still make it 0 and2. Julio seems to be a lock to get, you know, 30 stolen bases. You’d have to step on the gas a little, but a 3030 type of guy perennial for his career. 0 and2 and this will be served to center field right to Gray. So, the Mariners don’t have any more runs and Andre’s Monopoly. Most importantly, we’re placing more of our lines underground, protecting them from the elements that matter to you. Count on us to deliver energy so you can give it. It’ll be Camo Simpson and Forz 456 against Monos. So, the YouTube question I had said, “The Mariners have a shot of a 91 home stand since the trade deadline. Again, I got a win today and tomorrow. Are they legit?” Now, again, the two votes, both of you guys say yes. I happen to think that’d be the case, too. and I talked about a little bit throughout this broadcast. Be a lot of fun to see Seattle make the postseason. Uh I’d like to actually be able to call some of those games alongside Cooper Hopkins for the first time. That would be pretty fun to call M’s postseason baseball. I did reach out to him before in some of the years past, but he he keeps the M’s about as close to his heart as he can, probably more so even than the Flames. So he lives and dies by the M. So, it would be tough, but if I tell him that we’ll try to fight through it and uh try to pick each other up, I think he might consider it. So, hopefully that’s the case. Well, I mean, and John, if uh if you needed if you needed someone to talk to, I’ll gladly step in. We can have Cooper in here and he can he can give reactions. I have a feeling I have a feeling you would be staying quiet just out of sheer out of sheer like panic or stress. That’s that’s essentially Ian, you nailed it. That’s what Cooper has told me throughout his M because it’s been a roller coaster. We talked about some of that, but better than I could ever remember. Again, minus the team that won the hund and something games that got to the World Series and didn’t get it done with, you know, Edgar Martinez and it Griffin and all. This is probably the best team they’ve had since then top to bottom as Junior Camro has the three-run shot and then a single here to start it off against Munoz. So, this is the most dangerous part of the order. and Junior Camro leads off with a single. Now, after this in between Simpson, who’s got a ton of speed, even if you get something tailor made, it would still be difficult to turn a double play if you don’t get that firm throw from JP Crawford or Young. So, this is not a given, but after Simpson here, Munoz, as long as he throws strikes, should be able to settle in as 98 on a fast ball. This is way down low. took Cal Rowley out of the crouch. So Simpson 289, 16 RBI again, no home runs. He’s not really a candidate ever for that. Has 85 on a curve balls called strike make it one and one. That was right down the middle. So Muno’s got to lock in a little bit here. Again, you can afford to plant one essentially without the power, but you’re going to have to hit this one hard on the ground. One and three is Simpson on the day. This one breaks his bat in half and he’s gonna go have to pick up another one. Either he lost it out of his hands or it got broken in half, but either way, I think it part of it with the pine tar slipped out of his hands. I have to check to see if there’s any cracks in it, but he definitely did lose it out of the hands. He goes back and retrieves it near the on deck circle. That’s where Forz is going to be. They don’t have any other catchers for Kevin Casher’s squad, so I don’t think you’re pinch hitting at this point. Although Jake Mangum is an option. What a wild swing and a miss for Simpson. Looking foolish on a knuckle curve and it’s one down here in the ninth. Not even close. He could have swung at that four times and never would have made contact. So Nick Forez again, you get the 456. It’s kind of unfair because when you look at it for the M’s, you got Naylor, Suarez, Palanco, and you got Simpson, Fiducia, and like Forz or Kim, there just it’s it’s apples and oranges at that point. 99 outside the zone, but gets the call against Forz. So crowd wants to get to their feet. Forz big swinging a miss. He was early on that knuckle curve. Muno’s starting to find his spots 222 on the season with three tanks. Is Nick trying to fight off against the O2 and Munoz gets the sign. It’s Cal Raleigh. See if he goes with the heat this time. Anal curve down low and away. That one bounced off. Some dirt got in the eye of Cal Raleigh. and he’s gonna have to try to fight that off a little bit. He says he’s good. He’s just going to need a second. Trying to get backto back sweeps are the Seattle Mariners again. They would have to win tomorrow, but playing against the White Socks and the Rays, the teams that you should beat and they’re doing the job right now. Waiting on the one and two as they show Palanco at the top step. This one undercut in on the hands. Here’s a look for Rosarena. gives the call off to Julio Rodriguez and the Mariners one out away from winning this ball game. One out away from taking the series at least that would guarantee them an 8 and2 10game home stand. And now Hassan Kim the former Tampa Bay man will be the last hope. I should say Padre, not Tampa. It is Tampa. All three as this one is down is Austin Kim and it’s 10 and0 about 270 hitter when he’s right. Really just coming back from injury. He hasn’t been able to really play baseball with the Rays all that much. This one in toward the hands gets the friendly calls. That strike zone starting to wide a little bit. That one a little bit close enough to where I can understand. Make it one and one. It was a knuckle curve in on the hands. Can’t do anything with that if you’re awesome. Sign off the one one and 100. Just misses the bottom portion of the black. That was one of Munoz’s best fast balls of the night. Just an inch off the plate really there. That’s a pretty good eye for Hassan on each’s retirement night in 99 and back in the same spot. Make a three and one. You already have a runner at first in common. You don’t want to have anything silly happen here. Simunos want to try to avoid the walk if you can on this 3-1. 98 gets the call. catches just enough of that seam of the baseball barely in the zone. A fingernail three and two in the bottom black. If Hung Kim will get on, it’ll be Tristan Peters, but again, he’s only got seven career at bats if you count everything today. Full count pitch. Camo is going to be off regardless. 99 and Hosung will draw the walk and we will stay alive here just for the moment for the Tampa Bay Rays as this presses on. Hung took two very borderline pitches that I don’t think a lot of other players could take in that same situation. He did an excellent job to draw a walk. And if Tristan Peters hits a tank here, that would be one of the most unlikely scenarios out of a movie at this point, considering what we’ve seen for him through seven at bats. He’s still waiting for his first major league hit in his seventh career at bat. knuckle curve does get the call. That was outside about a couple inches but make it 0 and three just above the belt as Muno is trying to straddle that line and get the second win of this series. That one was a little more friendly 0 and2 but Peters does not offer and he’s down to his final strike. Mariners trying to get at least eight of 10 on this home stand and we will give another breath here for Tristan Peters who calls time just to dig back in. It’s pretty much the knuckle curve or the fast ball unless he gives him something else. Let’s see what he wants to do. Cal Raleigh set up toward the left. Knuckle curve swing on this and the Mariners get the job done as Moouse gets the save. Seven runs, seven attack does the job and now they’re one win away from tomorrow sweeping the Rays and going nine and one. That was a fun ball game, Ian. I appreciate you being with me all the way through and staying up late. You have a good one, my friend. We’ll talk very soon. Absolutely, sir. Have a good night. That is your final. The Mariners win 74. Pretty good ball game. Again, it’s the way it’s been. The machine keeps on rolling for Seattle. They look very, very good. This is a dangerous ball club. This is a team that I think can do some absolute damage in the postseason. What I hope is that Cooper and I can call some playoff baseball for his M. I know he’s going to be a little bit hesitant at that time because he holds them near and dear to his heart, but Cooper, your team is rolling, having some fun. Seattle wins this one 74 against the Rays. They go for the series sweep tomorrow. I’ll see you guys next week. Peace. as much as000.

Game Story: A special night for the Seattle Mariners (hashtag#TridentsUp) as Ichiro’s “51” was cemented at T-Mobile Park forever. Ian Genge joined me for this one. I added some photos from the ceremony and broke it all down here.

https://lnkd.in/eUbCP59X

Tampa Bay Rays (hashtag#RaysUp) Major League Baseball (MLB) hashtag#ichiro
ROOT SPORTS

Tampa Bay Rays (57-60) Batting Order Manager: Kevin Cash (5 Back of AL WC, 11 of ALE)

1. Yandy Diaz (1B, R) 110 GP, .279 AVG, 20 HR, 66 RBI, 57 R, 37 BB, 69 SO (33, Contact)

2. Brandon Lowe (DH, L) 93 GP, 274 AVG, 20 HR, 53 RBI, 57 R, 26 BB, 96 SO (31, A-A)

3. Josh Lowe (RF, L) 70 GP, .236 AVG, 7 HR, 27 RBI, 36 R, 25 BB, 60 SO, 11 SB (27, Health)

4. Junior Caminero (3B, R) 110 GP, .253 AVG, 30 HR, 76 RBI, 64 R, 25 BB, 95 SO (22, Stud)

5. Chandler Simpson (LF, L) 67 GP, .293 AVG, 0 HR, 16 RBI, 13 BB, 25 SO, 32 SB (24, Fast)

6. Hunter Feduccia (C, L) C 11 GP 25 AB, .240 AVG, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 8 SO (28, Platoon?)

7. Ha-Seong Kim (SS, R) 15 GP, .204 AVG, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 6 BB, 15 SO, 4 SB (29, .260, 15 HR)

8. Tristan Peters (CF, L) 3 Career AB, (25, I guess Magnum gets the day off.

9. Tristan Gray (2B, L) 22 CG, .150 AVG, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 20 SO (29, No Bench?)

Bench: Nick Fortes (C, R); Career .222 AVG, 26 HR, 97 RBI, 57 BB, 180 SO (28, Platoon)

Jake Mangum (LF, S) 78 GP, .280 AVG, 2 HR, 30 RBI, 26 R, 15 BB, 41 SO, 16 SB (29)

Taylor Walls (SS, S) 100 GP, .222 AVG, 4 HR, 38 RBI, 26 BB, 69 SO, 14 SB (29, Speed)

Christopher Morel (OF, R) 78 GP, 8 HR, 20 RBI, 31 R, 18 BB, 82 SO, 6 SB (26, 26/70)

Bullpen: Left: Ian Seymour; Mason Montgomery; Griffin Jax; Right: Mason Englert; Garrett Cleavinger, Pete Fairbanks, Edwin Uceta

Injured: Jonathan Aranda 103 GP, .316 AVG, 12 HR, 54 RBI, 40 BB, 102 SO (27, Wrist); Jonny DeLuca (OF, R); 20 GP, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 19 R, 2 BB, 13 SO, 6 SB (27); Moved on from Jose Caballero (NYY, 34 SB)

Starter: Joe Boyle (25, R, 1-1, 2.30 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 27.1 IP, 7 ER, 11 BB, 26 SO) Features: 4FB, Slider, Splitter (Split Can Be Wild, but attacks with the rest)

****
Seattle Mariners (64-53) Batting Order Manager: Dan Wilson (+2 WC, 1 GB of AL West)

1. Randy Arozarena (LF, R) 115 GP, .248 AVG, 23 HR, 57 RBI, 49 BB, 133 SO, 21 SB (30)

2. Cal Raleigh (C, S) 114 GP, .248 AVG, 43 HR, 93 RBI, 76 R, 68 BB, 136 SO, 13 SB (28)

3. Julio Rodriguez (CF, R) 116 GP, .252 AVG, 21 HR, 62 RBI, 31 BB, 116 SO, 22 SB (24, 99)

4. Josh Naylor (1B, L) 106 GP, .289 AVG, 14 HR, 65 RBI, 41 BB, 62 SO, 21 SB (28) Bo, Miles

5. Eugenio Suarez (3B, R) 106 G, .237 AVG, 37 HR, 90 RBI, 30 BB, 130 SO (34, Return, 2X)

6. Jorge Polanco (DH, S) 98 GP, .253 AVG, 18 HR, 53 RBI, 43 R, 32 BB, 54 SO (32)

7. Dominic Canzone (RF, L) 50 GP, .281 AVG, 7 HR, 17 RBI, 12 BB, 35 SO, (27, Starting)

8. J.P. Crawford (SS, L) 113 GP, .266 AVG, 9 HR, 44 RBI, 58 BB, 88 SO (30, Solid Again)

9. Cole Young (2B, L) 52 GP, .253 AVG, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 19 R, 16 BB, 34 SO (22, Rookie)

Bench: Mitch Garver (C, R) 61 GP, .217 AVG, 6 HR, 23 RBI, 21 BB,65 SO (34)

Ben Williamson (3B, R) 85 GP, .253 GP, 1 HR, 21 RBI, 36 R, 15 BB, 64 SO (24, Rookie)

Donovan Solano (INF, R) 66 GP, .250 AVG, 3 HR, 20 RBI, 8 BB, 36 SO (37)

Dylan Moore (INF, R) 78 GP, .197 AVG, 9 HR, 19 RBI, 17 BB, 71 SO (32, Defense)

Bullpen: L’s: Gabe Speier, Caleb Freguson; R’s: Jackson Kowar, Casey Legumina, Matt Brash, Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas, Andres Munoz Out: Trent Thornton (Torn Achillies),

Starter: Logan Evans (24, R, 5-4, 4.30 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 69 IP, 12 HR, 23 BB, 53 SO) Features: Cutter, Sweeper, Sinker, Changeup, 4FB, Curve Scouting Report: (95-80, Can’t sit on any, Cutter on hands or paint, Stay away from down and in changeup)
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