MLB’s playoff seeding problem, Inside Brewers’ unique brand of ball, Phils FLY, Ketel Marte wore WHAT?!

0:00I am talking to a felon right now with face tattoos and I cannot decide if I like him or not. That was a caller from my podcast, Therapy Gecko, where I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind. It all happens on my show, Therapy Gecko. So if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The entire draft room grows because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the award-winning Late Round Podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:03Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday. On our podcast, lots to say with me, Bobby Bones, and Matt Castle. You're in training camp and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media. Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up. Listen to lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I can hold it much longer. I can't let go so I can't be free. Monumental Week in baseball. I mean, the reactions on social media reactions from people around the sport rejoicing. This could be a new era in baseball for the angels. We covered it as breaking news on yesterday's show. We are going to cover it again today with Sam

2:06Blum, who will be a guest. And the tarp off crew felt like they had a part in this. They show up, they take their shirts off, and they say sell the team. Well, he listened. Good. Good by Arty if you couldn't hear it from the tarps off crew. There you guys get ripped AJ as players for one bad game. What about 20 bad years? Bye, bye Arty. That's what they were saying. That's kind of what everyone's saying right now, right? I mean, except for people that were directly related to him, he was 11 straight, you losing seasons for the angels. It's crazy. It's crazy for a team. And honestly, that's a big market. They want to be part of Los Angeles. But if you go to Anaheim, there's really only one thing

3:06in Anaheim. I mean, I know, yes, sorry, the ducks. But then it's the angels. They could be the Padres in Anaheim. There's a lot of money in Orange County. People used to love to go to angels games. I mean, go see the rally monkey. Go sit in that club that was right behind on play. That used to be the biggest deal when the angels were good. And now it's just become like, okay, well, we can get cheap tickets to the angels. So we'll go watch Mike Trial. To not take advantage of this market, to not take advantage of the fact that they had the two best players in the game for six years playing together. It's good for Arty. He made some money. It was bad for baseball. It was bad for baseball. And now, hopefully this next this next iteration of the angels is going to move in the right direction. And in honor of this sale, we're going to talk about something that angels fans hopefully will be able to taste again. We're going to spend 10 minutes in charge of the mound on the playoffs. So let's go over playoff seating. Do we like

4:12the current format? I want to show this buster only to to kick this off as we had the Yankees and Red Sox battle this past weekend. We talked about how maybe they kept Wilson Contreras going to see if they could pass the Yankees now. It doesn't seem like that'll be the case. Other side, you have the Phillies and the Cubs going back and forth on their wild card seating for the top two spots which represents who would get home field. But it's not just that, right? So buster said, the playoff picture in the American League is a classic example of why MLB should recede in the playoffs round around. As it stands now, Tampa Bay would play the winner of the Red Sox Yankees wild card series. Those are the three best teams in the American League. On the other side of the bracket, the White Tox would play the winner of the Guardians and Astros series, which with one of those teams advancing to the ALS. So, ALCS, so his point is that you have the three best records getting rid of each other. AJ, do you agree with buster that we should seek changes here? It's almost as if somebody has been talking about this for like a week now about how the White Sox,

5:17at least a week, if not more, maybe buster tuned in to the show because I've been saying for a couple weeks now that the White Sox because they're the two seed are going to have an easier path than the AL East on the other side is going to have to beat each other up to play the White Sox and or the wild card round winner. To me, the division winner should be rewarded. Okay, the first two the first two seeds, fine, give them a buy. I don't have a problem with that. In the in the wild card, the division winner should be rewarded because there should be some incentive for being a division winner. Now, when it gets to the next round, I have no problem if they want to recede when it gets down to the final four on each league because why is it fair that the rays and the Yankees or Red Sox who both will have a better record than the White Sox at the end of the year have to beat up on each other before the White Sox or the Guardians and or Houston as it sits right now would play each other to get a chance. It just doesn't seem fair, but this is the way Rob Manford and his owners drew it up is the way they like it, but I wish after when they got to the final four, they would do a receding. I think the owners can get behind us because they

6:22sit there and they go, we want the best series because the best series go five games, seven games, that's extra cash and their pockets. They can get behind it and it's not about to me, it's not about necessarily what's fair and what's not fair. It's about making the regular season matter. Okay, we're in, we're in, it doesn't matter. Like if you have the best record but you don't have the buy, it's one of those things that, hey, you know what, you can be rewarded for continuing to play out the season and I don't think we have historically bad like issue with load management, but you make the regular season matter when you do that receding, when you get a team that gets the fifth seed, they don't have to play the number one seed type of thing. Can we rack some tweets from fans replying to this? Let's do a few in a row and then we can look at the playoff bracket too. Also, we did a poll yesterday on our show, should MLB recede teams

7:22after each postseason round, 55% of you said yes. David replied to that buster tweet and said every playoff or tournament should be receded. The whole point of regular seasons is you gain an advantage in the postseason and that advantage should last the entire postseason, not just the first round. What else you got for me? Yes, from Rick, receding should always be the case when possible. NFL, has it right? They do. They definitely do. Well, no, that's not true because the winner of the division still gets the host of game. Remember, seven and nine Seattle beat the Saints in the in the Beastquake game? Remember, they were seven and nine that year and they had to host the Saints and they beat them in the playoffs. So they don't recede until after the first round. They give the division winner an advantage and then they recede. Can we show the last one too because I think you guys are going to disagree with this one. Zero drift said the fix for this would be to use an NBA style of seating. Just go top six records

8:26in the day. I'll top six records. NFL and use that from the jump. Well, then we're not. Divisions don't have rewarding divisions anymore. I mean, that's what they're going to get to. Once they have once they add two new teams expansion, they're going to get to two 16 team leagues. I think you can still have divisions in those leagues. You can't do this. NBA has East and West. Don't they? No, they have to let me ask you guys. Yeah, they have divisions, but they don't think they mean anything. No, they don't mean anything. For MLB, I think there's still meaning to a division. I think it's cool to have that. Now, when we have realignment right with 32 teams, crafts, you could go top seating, right, and do the NBA style or let's say the playoff format stays the same here and you still have six teams making it. If you have four divisions, you have four division winners and two wild cards. The two wild cards don't get, they would get the bottom two seats here. Or do you like where the wild cards could be above everyone?

9:31I mean, that's up to you guys. That's what we're asking here. Can the wild card seat for the realignment be above the division winner? No, it shouldn't be because you should be rewarded for winning the division. Okay. And that's where it's a rare case. It's a rare case. I get it. Just because like this year, the American League, the American League, it should be two. Right. I don't think that's always going to be how it is. I get it when you get that. Yeah, but that happens frequently, Cretz. Yeah, but not it does when you'd have not three, but you're not even two most of the time, but you often will have one team in the wild card seat that's better than a division winner. That's not uncommon. Let's look at the current playoff picture. So we've got the race holding a buy along with the white socks. And then the path for the race would be to go against, wait, is this right? Yeah. That's all right. That's all right. Yeah.

10:32No, that's slipped. Yeah, it's flipped. So the race would take on the winner of the Yankees and the Red Sacks. Yeah. And then the white socks would take on the winner of the Astros and the Guardians. Yes. That's what we were talking about here. That's what it could look like if they switched it. Right. And then for the other one, again, I mean, it would be the brewers in the one seed taking on the winner of the Phillies and Cubs. And then the Dodgers as the two seed would take on the winner of the Braves and the Padres. That one's more like, okay, I mean, all those teams are pretty damn good. Do they, do you think they made these decisions because baseball isn't, okay, you have a week to recede and figure out your travel? Like some of these series end game three of the wild card series will end and you're flying to the next city and they don't want to have to make other teams wait. Do you think that's why they do it? Say that again. Maybe game three game three of the NL wild card series, the two wild card series

11:42plays and you're waiting to find out where you're going. Game three is already done. You're waiting, you got to fly the next day. The other team flies the other direction because they thought if yeah, but the one team's didn't get home. It's only the team that wins it has to fly because the other teams at home, the top two seed started at home. Yeah. Just coordinating travel with the team that wins. They have to figure out if they're going to in this case, LA or they're going to Milwaukee because if they win, you know what I mean? I don't really care. You didn't get the higher seed. So whatever you have to do travel wise, the higher seed gets to wait for the team to come in. Yeah, I mean, that's why you have a traveling secretary. You have an assistant to the traveling secretary. I mean, you have all these things. I mean, and besides the hotel rooms already booked for each team, they do that stuff well in advance. So, so I mean, that's that to me shouldn't be the issue. And you know, if they're worried about, oh, I have to go to LA instead of Milwaukee. Okay,

12:44you just fuel up the jet a little bit farther. It's the same plane. Just put some more fuel on that bitch and drive away. So why do they do it? Why do they do it this way when the other leagues? It's more for the I think it's more for the media. In what way? Honestly, like their travel, or like for like Fox or TBS to like advertise it. I mean, they could just say Dodgers vs. Lois Seed. Who has first? Yeah, I mean, they do that in football. They do in football. That's what I mean. Like, there has to be a reason they do it. Because I don't feel like because this is their money maker, this is the reason we added more teams. This is more teams into the playoffs. So that majorly baseball gets more money. I don't think it's just a now whatever, you know, this is how we'll do it. And there has to be a reason. There is a reason. Do you guys want to know what it is? Yeah. They like a clean bracket.

13:46You want a March Madness style bracket? I'm not kidding. They were really into the bracket thing on the marketing when I was there towards the end. What do you mean? They like a bracket. And when a March Madness style bracket. You don't get a bracket. So you can just have a graphic of a bracket of where the teams are going to go and play? That's a terrific thing. I think that's part of it. I think that they like it to traditionally be set up and then it's a traditional bracket and you don't recede. I don't think they're like, oh, we're hard and fast on this. We'll never change this. But I do think that was part of the mix here. I do know for a fact that they were very into marketing the playoffs as a bracket. That's a big thing. I'm sure they probably still do it. I see it on the website. Obviously, I don't watch the channel, but like I'm sure they do it there. They were big on promoting the bracket. I mean, we like to show the bracket brackets are easy to comprehend. I like the way it looks. 100%. But I also think you should have the best series, the best teams rewarded for

14:47having the best entire season. And I think receding does that. NBA. So we're all right. NBA. Well, I mean, you guys got to help me out. I'm so confused. I'm not in the NBA. We got the playing it. We're like, there's so much to give. We got the plan. We got the curtain. We got the there's so many freaking made up terms. But the NBA, does the NBA recede? I don't know. I don't think so. I think they do straight bracket versus eight. So right. So if they get the four or five, got it. Yeah. Okay. So NFL recedes, right? At some point, NBA doesn't. I'm sure people in the comments are going to go crazy. Sorry. I don't pay attention to the other sports as well as I do baseball. But that's what we know. Crats, I think what people are seeing on

15:49the screen and what we'll explain to the podcast audio crowd right now is how I'm a little summer action with Fabletics. And then you take us into fall and a little more layering. And here in the east, I'm still going to go to the shore in the fall. I love the shore in September. You come in from the beach. You throw on a sweatshirt like this. It's light. It's breathable. But you know what is so comfortable. Yeah. And for me, I love working out. But also, I'm getting more into tennis, paddle, a little bit of pickleball, all that. I want lightweight, breathable, comfortable, and affordable. Let's talk about that. The discounts for Fabletics are massive when you sign up as a VIP shop now at Fabletics.com slash foul to get 70 to 80% off everything. When you sign up as a new VIP, take a quick style quiz. Be sure to select foul when prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer. So don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com slash foul for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. College football will hijack your weekend,

16:51ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan Rebel College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. How's it going? Every week, we preview the games that matter, sort through the biggest storylines, and tell you what to watch before kickoff. There's a lot to keep track of. Who's for real? Which upset is hiding in plain sight, and which storyline is about to take over your group chat? And when the games are joining us in the aftermath, too, we're going to react to what happened, talk about the biggest results. Of course, we'll cover the playoff picture. And all the little details you might have missed while flipping between like 12 games at once. Whether you know every coach and coordinator or just want to understand why everybody is yelling, we're here to help make sense of the madness. Listen to the Solid Verbal College football show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you guys, I mean, I know you're not watching pitch by pitch, but see the Pittsburgh Giants game on Tuesday. And you had Paul Skien's,

17:58you know, given up five runs, leaving early Logan Webb was crushed in that game. And then, of course, there's comebacks on both sides, a walkoff on an infield error. I mean, it had it all, AJ. It was crazy. I remember I texted you on my dang skein just getting whacked again. And then Logan Webb goes out and out doesn't forgetting whacked. So it was not a good night to pitch in Pittsburgh. The ball was flying. And it was a while. And you see, you know what the best part of this best worst part of this game was when the game ended, I forget the guy's name who made the error at the end. But I think it was costs. Is it KO SS costs? Bassab, Bassab I made the error. Bassab made the error. And cost was the shortstop. I believe his name was costs. And the poor Bassab A guy was about to cry sitting there like on his knees. Like you made an unbelievable play. And he threw it and Devers didn't pick it. But then the cost guy was walking him off the field with his arm around his shoulder, just consoling him. That was pretty awesome. Like, that's a good teammate right there. That's kind of what it's all about. And good for you,

19:01call, I want to call him carrying costs, but I know that's on his name because that's the wrestler guy. So I apologize. But no, I'm with you. I saw that clip with him. All of them. The ball was traveling, but I think the pirates scored their first 10 runs all in singles. I don't think they had one extra base hit. And then they gave it up. Like it was, it was the back and forth that we had the other night with the Red Sox Mariners, except that game actually mattered. This game, both teams are out of it. You just don't seem to think you don't see two All Stars going at it against two lineups that have been up and down and say, this will probably be 13 to 12. And you know what, we haven't talked about the Tigers much lately since, or sorry, the pirates, but you know, we'll bury them at some point officially on a segment, like we're going to do later for the Tigers, but the mission of being competitive in September failed. A little better this year, but not good enough failed, not good enough to be talked about in

20:05September, right? We're not talking about them. Yes. And I'm not talking, Luke Weaver. I'm talking in the first half, it failed them. And then it led them to this point. Well, they couldn't spend every better since it's unfair. We spent our, we spent our 101 million dollars. So that was it. We couldn't add another $8 million reliever to pictures that shoved Gavin Williams. You're on the list. Seven innings two hits, one walk, 13 strikeouts for a Guardians team that needs to pile some wins together. They beat the blue Jays. That one was a six one final. I want to throw in one more pitching performance. That was just pointed out by somebody in our chat. And I agreed I had it written down for around this time period. Anyone see Freddie Peralta last night after the home run from Francisco Lindor, looks like he's starting to figure it out with the rays six innings three hits, one run, no walks, seven strikeouts. And I don't, I didn't pay attention to this in particular, but one of the

21:08commenters Chris said he had a no hitter after the first inning. Freddie P doing it right. Got to the rate, starting to figure it out. Took a couple starts. They're starting to get him right. And he's pitched well as last few times out. And yeah, I mean, Lindor hit the lead off home where you're like, oh, if you're racing or thinking, oh, here we go again. And then he just went into nobody's touching me the rest of the way. It was, it was pretty good to watch. I'll, he was in control of that game. Trusting, trusting in what they're working on takes a little bit of time. We even said it on here. It's not going to be an immediate turnaround. Like, oh, well, we fixed them. It's just slowly progressing to being a guy that they can count on in the postseason possibly. If he continues this through September. I think certain teams need to evaluate what their pitching changes look like from a pitching program perspective, not even talking about one particular pitching coach, but Freddie P to be a mess with the met and then go to the race and pretty quickly clean it up. And now names. I'm saying, sure you guys made the right call.

22:13Do you remember growing up and seeing that something was sold out and it was literally sold out and you couldn't get a ticket? Yes, that's not a thing anymore. Cryed many times over that scub. But now we have Seaky. Mm-hmm. The unit says sold out. You can find that perfect seat for you. Yep, the official ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball is Seaky to find that seat for you, whether it's down the stretch, a team that you're following that's going to play postseason ball, or whatever you're going to game for. I want to see a particular pitcher eventually playoff tickets. Same thing, right? Playoff tickets generally sold out. Don't worry. Seaky has the spot. Find your green dot. Find the green dot. Red dot bad deal. Green dot great deal. There's plenty of green dots for whatever game you want. Find it. Buy your tickets and go enjoy the game. Code territory 10, 10% off your next set of tickets at Seaky. That's 10% off any MLB tickets with the promo code territory 10. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and then the code will automatically be added to your account so that you can use it later.

23:14You know the feeling. You make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room groans because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in prime time. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data driven analysis, historical trends and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers and the mail back data driven quick hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, that's what he said. That's what he said. That's what he said. That's what he said.

24:15It's going to keep going. It just is. Okay. People want to hear about it. Yes. Yes. No, you know, I'm Nolan Arnato. I'm Nolan Arnato from now on. Sorry, Nolan. Take your 10 gold gloves and we're going to chat about it. The reason that the Katal Marta story continues is he wore a hat that had some messaging to it. And then there was as Mark Greg put here and some others from the athletic road about lots of chatter about his choice of hat that red made the bridges I burn light the way. Okay. So when when you're finally showing up after weeks off and then you wear a hat that has some messaging on it, you're going to get questions, right? It's not like dude, where's my car? It's a real message that makes you think. Okay. And then, then you have Tory levello saying, I want to move past this Katal stuff as quickly as possible. I think if you chop up those words,

25:17maybe he's taking some accountability. He feels like he's done some things and he wants to get better. That's how I read it. Okay. That's what Tory said. Here's what Katal Marta said. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know I had that hat on. I didn't know. I just put it on. Okay. Maybe it's super, super innocent that you're putting on a pretty meaningful hat. And it can be interpreted in a variety of ways. But the reason this story continues is that people are going to ask a question like that when you have a hat like that on Garrett Cole right after he finished his career with the Astros goes into the clubhouse and puts a Boris cap on, right? That just means, hey, I'm a free agent. This time is done. I'm not going to be on this team again. I'm hitting free agency, right? That is a message. Katal Marta is not stupid, AJ. He is well aware that what he says or does as a major league star player is going to be scrutinized, right? This is him with all of the

26:18lights and cameras on him. So if you're going to wear a hat like that and then say, oh, no, I just just found I was just looking for my hat sangs. And this is the one that I picked up randomly. Do we do believe that? Okay, no, I don't believe that. But that's the answer he gave so we have to believe him. Also, Katal Marta, I want to say this for all the Twitter people out there. And this is my least favorite argument of all time. And I hope Kratz gets this too. And it's just a dumb argument. We were not as good of players as Kratz Marta. We understand that. Okay. I know. I plead for Kratz plead for, you know, whatever, how many every years, I was it 12 years, Kratz 13, how many years did you play? Oh, that's parts of 11 in the big leagues. 19 total. Okay. Thank you. I played parts of 19 years in the major leagues. I was not as good of a player as Kratz Marta. Okay. Let's just get that out there. But I did play with some players that were actually better than him. One of them was

27:21Barry bonds. And you know what? For all the crap that Barry bonds took, he always showed up. Okay. He always showed up to a game. And people talk about him like he's the worst person in the world. He always showed up. Now, did he play? Not every day is where he didn't play, but he showed up. I played with Adrian Beltrade who's in the Hall of Fame. Guess what he did every day. He showed up and he played every day. I played with Freddie Freeman who's going to the Hall of Fame. Guess what he did? He showed up every day. I played with Mark Burley, Balkan Ericko, Torreon or Naimum. I played with all these guys, right? These are all some of the best players of all time. You know what they all did? They all showed up every day. Sorry. And when they were, they all knew when I wear a hat that says something that people are going to ask me questions about, I better be prepared to answer the question and not say, Oh, I didn't even know I had that hat on. I didn't. It surprised me. When you put the hat on and it's that color green, it's not like it was a black hat. That, that, that hat is screaming. Read me what I say. When I'm, if I'm walking down the street, anywhere and I see that hat on my man, what does that have to say? Because it is so bright. It burns

28:23my eyes. So listen, Torrelevello can say whatever he wants about, you know, what, how he interprets it. He could tell Mark take and say he didn't even know what had he had on. Maybe he just wore it like Cretzett because he matched his shirt yesterday. But at some point, you got to just take accountability for your actions. That's it. At some point, you got to take accountability and you got to be held accountable. Every action we make, excuse me, as an adult, I'm held accountable for it. If it's, I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to do this. Whatever it is, there's consequences to actions we take. And at some point, you have to be held accountable. Just can't always be, it's okay. He won't do it again. Next year in 2027, for the fifth straight year, there's got to be some sort of accountability. And I think that's why the story keeps going is because he doesn't have the accountability. It's always, oh, I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Okay. If you didn't know, I'm sure someone's told you by now, you have to show up. Well, you didn't know your hats on backwards. And you look like an idiot. I have a skull cap. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing.

29:23I have a skull cap on, which is a hat. And also, by the way, I have a full head of hair. So people like, you're trying to cover your baldness. No, I have a full head of hair. You know, I wear a hat backwards because I don't want to comb my stuff. Unlike crotch, it looks sexy as hell and it's bald. It's Mr. Clean. Wait, I have an analogy for you guys. So everybody has a family member who maybe, hey, it could be extended family member, whatever gets in some trouble. It's like, oh, liquid, you know, ant's own so did again or something, right? Let's say that same person who gets in trouble frequently or maybe doesn't show up, they don't show up to stuff. So there's your direct correlation, right? They were supposed to show I bought them a ticket for a couple hundred bucks, for a game or for Broadway show. They didn't show up. Well, they better show up to someone so and so's wedding than they show up. They wear white. You're going to get talked about. Okay? Like, it is not it is a free world, but it is a free world to scrutinize what you're doing and you're starting the sport. So like you can actually, well, I don't know, I just picked up up like on the

30:24most days. Okay, there's one day here where the whole baseball world is watching you. So don't act like you can just pick up any sayings and throw them on and it doesn't mean anything. They're looking for something. And when I say they, I mean, everyone, that includes us. We're covering this, right? Look at AJ. Does he want to cover this every day? No, but this is becoming a story. Wait, and this is a distraction. This is a full-fledged distraction. We are at the point, AJ, where Tori Levello has to start looking up meanings of a saying on a hat to try and figure out how he is going to defend him. You don't think that's distracting a manager that has enough going on to try and manage a team into a postseason that he's got to be sitting there with AI or Google or whatever and being like, let me see how I can answer this to the media. You got to be kidding me, bro. Can you just stop for one second? That goes to accountability. That's the accountability. That's the accountability. And the problem is nobody wants to say it because they all want to be

31:26good teammates to them, right? But I guarantee you, Cressen, tell me if I'm wrong. I'm happy to be wrong. I'm wrong all the time. His teammates behind this blank those doors are going, are you kidding me? He wore that hat? You know they're saying it. What are you talking about? No, Narnado said it. Just not as many words. He's like, he's a really good player. I don't really want to deal with this anymore. We need him in the lineup. That's what they've been saying the whole time. Nolan's new. Nolan is probably the least dramatic person. His only drama in his career was the fact that he was like, going to be traded, not going to be traded, all this stuff. He goes about his work day in and day out. And not to belabor a point, but you 100% knew what you were wearing. I'm sorry. I don't believe that you didn't know what you were wearing. I knew I put on my foul territory shop.com Kyle Schwarber shirt. I knew it. And I am the least good looking caring about what I look

32:28like type of person. You are hat matched your shirt. You knew exactly what you were doing. Your eyebrows were perfectly manicured. You're a good looking man who comes to the ballpark, ready to go when you come to the ballpark. But there is a there is a standard to being apologetic. And in my opinion, complete outsider, he does not fit the profile of being as apologetic as you would think somebody that wants to actually be forgiven for what he's done. Or maybe he just doesn't feel like it's as big a deal as everybody else is making it out to be. Definitely. That's definitely part of it. Because if you really care, you're having conversations with the team with your team behind the scenes saying, Hey, how do I come out as genuine as possible when I speak to the media? And there were plenty of shots of this during that media conference. Again, how many excuses can we

33:29make? Like, Oh, well, guys, like, you know, he's just different or like he's sitting laid back with his arms crossed, taking you can do that 99% of the time no one's going to care. Maybe the one time to not do that is when you're trying to come back from two weeks of dishing your team to explain what the situation was. It just comes off so poorly. The casino thing, I still I don't think I'll ever get over that part. You're not with the team for no reason. And then you're at a casino having a time while your team is playing. Like, I mean, you guys are the ones that we go to for this, not me, right? But if that was my high school basketball team, I would be losing my freaking mind. You know, like, I'd be going to coach. Didn't you hear him say he didn't think that was a big deal? He said, I wasn't that big of a deal. What's the big deal to that? I mean, there's a huge. That's where he's lost. That's what I'm saying. But again, he's not being held accountable. He's not. I'm sorry. And I love to re-level, but by just

34:31just someone needs to grab him and say, this isn't the right way. And I know they can't do anything because he's such a great player and he's their best player on the team and he's making so much money. But someone has got to be able to get through to him. I'm sorry. I'm with you. And here's what's going to happen to I guarantee it, right? People feel comfortable coming on this show and speaking their mind. And that's what we do every day. There's no doubt that there will be some teammates at some point who feel comfortable enough when they're not on the team or when they're not playing anymore, whatever to come on and give us more because we know that most of that clubhouse is freaking pissed. Come on. At this point. Yeah, but I think a lot of people would just be like, I can't really believe you did it. I can't believe me. I don't think there's players that were like who are going, well, he did it. I can do it. Like, I think it's more of like, whoa, the exact reactions that we've all had. Like, seriously, he's missed again. He's opted out of not coming to the field every season since 2023, at least one game in the in the year. Yeah, unacceptable. So

35:38the saga continues. Maybe this is the end for now, but don't you worry if the dime of acts don't make the playoffs. This is all going to pop up again because there were some losses created by him. Hold on. Let's let. Okay, here's the thing for the for the fans at home. Okay, wherever you work, let's say I'm going to use, I don't know, pick a company home depot. Okay, you work at home depot. And you're the, you know, you're a guy that works at home depot. You do your job. And then the guy who's your boss, who's, you know, let's say the assistant manager at home depot. They just don't show up. They're like, nah, it's a, it's a, let's say it's an unloading day. You got a bunch of shimmets in. You got to unload the trucks. The assistant manager was like, you know what guys? I'm not feeling it today. I'm just not going to show up. Not going to tell anybody nothing. How would you feel at home depot? And then you're doing extra work because you have to unload more stuff. Like it's, it sounds like a terminology, but that's kind of what it was. On the eastern. Like you're just, oh, I'm the assistant manager. I'm better than everyone else beneath me.

36:43I don't have to show up today. And then the manager goes, well, you know, he just misunderstood the directions of having to show up. Okay, they're okay. I'm going to use this another analogy. I'm going to use this. You're fired. And you guys can say I'm crazy. I'm a part of a hunting lease. Okay, there's like 20 guys in this hunting lease. We have work days, right? On Saturdays. And deer seasons coming up to go hunting. Okay, we have a rule where if you don't go to work days, you don't get in the lottery where you pick where you go sit on opening day of, opening weekend. Well, I haven't been able to go to work days because I've been working on Saturday. I work on Saturdays for on Fox. Okay, guess what? Guess who can complain? And if I want to go hunting, I get the last pick and I just got to go wherever I got to go. You know why? Because I didn't go and do the work. So therefore, you know what I get squat, right? So I'm like, oh, that's fair. You guys did all the work. You deserve the first picks in the lottery. I don't get it because I haven't been able to show up. No, it's not my fault. It's a little bit different, but it's kind of the same thing. If you don't do the work and you don't show up,

37:43then you shouldn't get the rewards. Yeah, well, he's gotten them. I mean, and to me, the analogy for what you're saying is that I just think creating excuses again and again for him like we, we got to stop with that. Let's just call us beta spade. We're getting closer to that. But you know the feeling you make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room. Grounds because they wanted that player or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in prime time. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data driven analysis, historical trends and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers and the mail back data driven, quick hitting episodes to help bring home

38:46that league trophy. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan-verbal college football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. How's it going? Every week we preview the games that matter sort through the biggest storylines and tell you what to watch before kickoff. There's a lot to keep track of. Who's for real? Which upset is hiding in plain sight? And which storyline is about to take over your group chat? And when the games are over, join us in the aftermath too. We're going to react to what happened, talk about the biggest results, of course, we'll cover the playoff picture. And all the little details you might have missed while flipping between like 12 games at once. Whether you know every coach and coordinator or just want to understand why everybody is yelling, we're here to help make sense of the madness.

39:48Listen to the solid verbal college football show on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan and on my podcast Hollywood land, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Like how the story of Marilyn Monroe isn't just the story of a Hollywood icon. Marilyn Monroe has become so iconic that her death can only be explained through conspiracy theories. And for some fans who can't let go, these stories have metastasized from conjecture to accepted fact. So on August 4th 1962, Marilyn Monroe died, then the rumors started and she died again. And now we're going to set the record straight and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third way. Learn more about what happens when fame media obsession and conspiracy collide.

40:51Listen to Hollywood land on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. In the week, let's dive into a former team of Eric Cratsys and find out why they are so different, why they are so successful in the regular season and can that carry into the post season for a deeper October run. Let's talk about the long ball. So this is one of the best offenses in baseball, but they rank dead last in home runs. A lot of major league baseball and the teams within it promote pulled fly ball contact. The brewers don't. They don't rank well in that category. Okay, but they are a patient team. This is not like a slap hitting team. They're among the most patient teams in major league baseball. This is from a Mike Petriello article that they don't swing. They're the only team with an opposite attack angle. And they do actually capitalize with homers in situations with

41:54runners in scoring position as well as most teams in baseball, but they barely swing. They're one of the most patient teams in the last decade. They draw a ton of walks. They don't chase bad pitches. So when we add all of this up and we'll mix in some more stats as we go for a team that ranks third in batting average in baseball. Can this work in the playoffs? Because the article concludes with a, hey, in the postseason, the team that out homers their opponent wins about 80% of the time. The brewers haven't gotten past the division series since 2018 and they make the playoffs just about every year. Add it all up, spit it out. Tell me what you like and don't like. I don't like when people just throw the stat out. Whoever out homers the other team in the playoffs wins. Like tell me why that is. Why do homers play in the playoffs? And the reason I think it it plays in the playoffs is because there's just too much good pitching going on the entire time.

42:57Rarely are you getting any kind of down guy? Rarely are you going 80 pitches deep into a starter. You get to 70 pitches. You get to the second time through. The manager's hand is right on the panic button as soon as there's any. Let's go right to our, right to our highest leverage guy out of the bullpen. I'm not saying this can't work in the playoffs. I'm saying that's why historically the home run really plays because you're like, man, we just couldn't get anything going. Why can't you get anything going? Because it's a number one. It's a number two. It's a number one out of the bullpen. It's a number two. It's the closer and the game's over and you're like, oh boy, that happened fast. Can this work? Yes, it can work. And the way that it works is they trust that they can do this against all of that good pitching. Have they done it yet? Absolutely not. Do teams win that way? Not historically or majority of the time? But that doesn't matter. This team

44:02has to believe what they're doing will work. The reason they have to believe it is because somebody's not just going to come in and hit eight homers in a playoff run. Like there's not that Daniel Murphy type of moment on this team except you just win this game's the exact same way. You line up against the opponent that you have and you execute your style in the box and you see if you're better than them in the postseason. Power is valued across the sport. Right? Pulled homers sometimes. Ignorantly sometimes. Yeah, too much. There can be too much. I think a team on the other end of that sometimes has been the Yankees and you see their approach in the playoff sometimes and you're like, yeah, that doesn't work either. Okay. But because is there a happy medium is really the question here, right? The power plus the slug that we've seen from teams like I would say Toronto, right? We looked at Toronto last year and they'll go look, they all may contact. There was plenty of slug in that line of last year. Now some of that slug disappeared this year. Gladys Jr lost his superpowers

45:05for now. But for Milwaukee, I mean, you've got two hitters with 20 plus homers barely. Jake Bowers has 23. Jackson Churriot has 20. I'm not talking about the team approach as much as the personnel to should the brewers be looking for a little more pop to tap into when they're evaluating talent. Sure, sure, but you also have to understand how they build their lineup. They have very little slugs in their lineup, not slug slugs. They have a very athletic lineup. They have a very defensive oriented lineup. Yes, Jake Bowers and Rightfield probably not your most athletic, but you know what? They'll put Jake Bowers and Rightfield when they're facing the lefty because he'll go left on left and then you have Vaughan at first base. As soon as Vaughan comes out for a platoon advantage defensive replacement type of thing, then Bowers goes to first. So they have to play their game. Should they

46:10try to evaluate for more power? Absolutely. The thing that you have to understand about these guys is it's not like their team is filled with Chandler Simpson. These guys have power. Their approach is clearly based on that graphic of the fact that you can that they're attack angle, meaning they're not hitting the ball consistently to the pool side. They're consistently hitting it to the opposite side of second base. Like that is a that is a crazy, it's clearly focused stat that in my opinion really works because Dale Swain was the hitting coach in 2014 and 2015. Did that Kansas City Royals team have Uber, Uber power? Hey, you know what? Eric Hosmer was one of the best power prospects in the minor leagues. Musstakis has a 30 maybe even 40 home run season under his belt. Alaskorn, we have guys with power. Salvador Perez, all guys with power. But in the K

47:15at Kaufman Stadium, power gets diminished. Dale Swain said, look, teams that win and I forget what his stat was. It was like the high if you can get to 56% of balls driven in the air to the opposite field with runners in scoring position. You have like over the last like four years it was that team was the team that won the World Series or had the best most run score. So there's different ways to cook the soup. I think some teams just automatically, ignorantly, sometimes go to you got to pull the ball more and you got to pull the ball more in the air. You know why? Because those numbers are better. It's like telling a picture, you got to throw just a little bit harder. Why? Because the numbers from 97 miles an hour to 98 miles an hour are drastically lower for a hitter. Yes, I am not disagreeing with that. But not everybody can do those things. And I think the brewers have done a great job of leaning into their ability. Now they have to be

48:20able to execute it in the postseason, which I think with this lineup, they've played together. They've had more experience together in the playoffs and they should know it works. They beat the cubs. Everybody thinks, oh man, you know Dodgers ran over them. They did. They did run over them. That doesn't mean that's what's going to happen this year. Right. And the Dodgers had some of the most dominant pitching we've seen in the playoffs from starting pitching for sure. Right? It's tough to string hits together. Multiple hits together. That's part of it. Right? That's the basics of the sport. Right? Take a walk hit a homer boom. You got two runs trying rack five, six singles together to get two runs like that against glass no snow Yamamoto O'otani when they're really prime dealing. You're impossible. And I ran the first year of our show. I tried to run like a scatter report type of show. It got boring and long and nobody really wants to hear it. But that's how you get ready for a playoff game. And I can still remember some of the scatter reports from

49:24years that I was in the playoffs when I played in 18 and then the other years when I wasn't even playing because you just you drill in that scatter report. You drill in the fact that certain guys can't hit a breaking ball early in the count or don't swing. And that's what enables you to have success through a lineup in the playoffs. Hey shout out to I'm wearing the shirt today. The Philly show. They're going to be at Manco and Manco in Ocean City, New Jersey tomorrow at 11.30 a.m. Eastern time for one of their big events that they do two three. You know the feeling. You make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room groans because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in prime time. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data driven analysis, historical trends, and the strategies that separate winners

50:28from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mail back data driven, quick hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan-verbal College Football Show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. How's it going? Every week we preview the games that matter sort through the biggest storylines and tell you what to watch before kickoff? There's a lot to keep track of. Who's for real? Which upset is hiding in plain sight? And which storyline is about to take over your group chat? And when the games are over, join us in the aftermath too. We're going to react to what happened, talk about the biggest results. Of course, we'll cover the playoff picture. And all the little details you might have missed while flipping

51:31between like 12 games at once. Whether you know every coach and coordinator or just want to understand why everybody is yelling, we're here to help make sense of the madness. Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football Show on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Hollywoodland, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history, separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Like how the story of Marilyn Monroe isn't just the story of a Hollywood icon. Marilyn Monroe has become so iconic that her death can only be explained through conspiracy theories. And for some fans who can't let go, these stories have metastasized from conjecture to accepted fact. So on August 4th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died. Then the rumors started, and she died again.

52:31And now, we're going to set the record straight and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third way. Learn more about what happens when fame, media obsession, and conspiracy collide. Listen to Hollywoodland on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes a year down at some sweet sweet pizza at Manko and Manko. John Crock. Yep, it's a great spot. It's great food, and John Crock is going to join them for a special episode. So if you happen to live in Pennsylvania or Jersey or close enough to be able to go, and you'd like to attend that in person and get to see John Crock and all of his organic jokes, I say organic, sometimes he means it, and sometimes just what he says turns into a joke. So he's an entertaining guy. He goes viral, I mean, once every week or two on the broadcast, we're at that status. It's that often that he drops a lot of work. I love that guy. I love that guy. He's one of my all-time favorites.

53:33Really? I love that guy. He is. He's the best. Yeah. He's the best. In real life, he's actually watered down on TV from what he is in real life. In real life, you could just stick your head in this office. It's around the corner from, well, it's all their offices. It's around the corner from their booth. I mean, like, Crucky, how you doing? He's like, ha, ha, ha. I haven't been able to eat anything because I'm supposed to lose weight because my hip hurts, and now my hip still hurts. Now, miserable, hungry, and my hip hurts. Like his stories and then he just goes off. It is tremendous. Here's awesome. Here's awesome. This is the show, by the way, QR code bottom right corner. If you want to watch the show live tomorrow, which is Thursday, John Cruck on the Philly show. Crucky's still calling quite a few Philly's games, so he'll have his take on what's going on there. He'll have takes on a little bit of the rest of the

54:33league, past baseball stories, the whole deal. So, our guys over at the Philly show do a great job, and there's good food there. Good eats. Over at Manco and Manco. So, I'm excited to check that out. And AJ, we were talking about before crats and I, but the Philly's are also on fire. Oh, they might catch the braves. We thought that was impossible. They might catch the braves. Like, seriously, they might catch the braves. They're about two and a half or one and a half behind them. They're close. Three, three going into the series. They got a bite. You got seven, seven games coming up against them or something like that. We talk about different hitters making adjustments, like PCA controlling the zone more. The Philly's dropping their strikeouts the way that they have. I don't understand how a team turns it around that quick, that specific thing around that quick.

55:38Hey, let's slap. Mariners got back on the winning side of things and they have a new prospect, Laz Montez, who hit a missile yesterday in the game his first homer. But he also signed the Green Monster in the back end before his debut, which many have done as you can see on here. Cool moment. I signed where nobody's ever going to paint over it. I signed on the ceiling on the concrete in the Green Monster. So, RIP to that, to that Sharpie that I signed with because you write on concrete. It's cooked after that, but they're not painting over the concrete. So, mine's still up there. Worth it, worth it to ruin one Sharpie for that. And that was a rocket. Now he hit the center. That like you see certain guys and you hear about the 80 grade potential power. That type of swing. He may end up in Japan or he may end up hitting 30 dingers in the show. And a parlay boost token could be in your BEDMGM account of the baseball

56:42variety. An MLB parlay boost token to swing for a bigger payout. Go check it out and see if you can activate that on any MLB parlay and get yourself a bigger payout if that parlay hits. Gambling problem or concern. There's help. Call 1-800-Gampler. I am talking to a felon right now with face tattoos and I cannot decide if I like him or not. That was a caller from my podcast therapy gecko where I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind. It all happens on my show therapy gecko. So, if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to therapy gecko on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft,

57:42our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast and the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan Verbal College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week we preview the games that matter in the storylines that are going to ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College football show on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.