Pirates Face Some Tough Calls After Wild Weekend in Chicago

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1:00use topical therapies. Epglyce can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglyce. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer, worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyce. Before starting Epglyce, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyce and visit Epglyce.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979. This is Belie. One network, every topic, everywhere. Welcome to the Nordshore Nine Podcast, presented by Fandall. This is Bucko Brew, Power by the Fair Coffee and Tea. I'm your host, Anthony D'Ardo, and with me, as always, this

2:03beautiful Monday is Jim Rosotti and Jim. How you doing? I'm doing good. Good morning. Good to hear. Those little carnels one, those Pittsburgh Steelers one, you had a good football weekend. It was a good weekend. One on vacation too. That's right. My wife and I took our father-in-law to Boston. He had never been to Boston before. Yeah, we were traveling around New England for a couple days. Yeah, it was a good time. Weather was outstanding. That's the best part. Awesome. Yeah, good stuff. I was in Tampa most of last week. I came home Saturday. I got a cold. So dumb. Anyways, dumbed better now. I think the height of it was on Friday.

3:04It's just so annoying. So annoying. Colds are the most annoying thing. I was actually going to go to Tampa-Rays game on Friday night. They played the Astros. Yeah, why not? I was 16 minutes from the ballpark. Once I got home, I'm like, I'm just staying home. That was my week slash weekend. Then I got to come home and watch the Cubs lose to the Pirates. So that was cool. On Sunday. Yeah. Not on Friday or Saturday though. No. No. I was still in Tampa then. I was driving during Saturday's game. So I didn't really see that. I was listening to it. Yeah. I actually stopped at the gas station when the whole soda thing happened. So when I came back, I could listen to MLB on the app. It's not live. It'll just pick back up. And I saw all the tweets. And I saw this and I started listening to it. I was going

4:05and I was like, you know what? Yeah. Saturday's game was the one that I completely missed. I didn't watch it. I didn't listen to it. I didn't really follow along to it. So yeah. I guess I missed the, but though it was a good game to miss. Yeah. Looked it. Saturday's, you know what? Kind of happy I did. But they avoided a sweep. They did went on Sunday. Well, it's interesting because like, I mean, they ended up going for and two on the road trip, right? They kind of kept doing what they've been doing, which is if they would have won two out of three inch against the white socks and then two out of three against the cubs, you know, it would have been the same outcome. So they're back to 500. Their postseason chances are almost nonexistent right now. The Padres just kind of keep winning. And so

5:06that's the problem whenever you don't control your own destiny. You can, you can win a bunch of games. And like this pirate's team has been playing really well lately. I mean, right. If they've been, if they would have played like they have this past month, the last two months, you know, they'd be in a really, really good spot. But they haven't. And they're just, they they fell too far behind. And this recent streak of just good baseball that they've been playing, it's nice to see, right? Like it's these these games are still, they said, Alex says it on his show, a lot where like there's they don't have an e next to their name. They're there. It's technically still meaning, meaning full baseball. Until they got the e next to the name, it's still, it's still counts. And here we are on September 14th. There's no e it's, it's obviously it's, it's bleak. It's there with their will be an e next to their name soon. But it's not there yet.

6:11Yeah, it's like what point 1% right now on, on, yeah, thing, aggressive playup odds. Yeah, and that's the thing, they actually have done their part, you know, like they're going to make the playoffs. It's zero, but now officially that's of this morning. Yeah, we joked yesterday, it's probably like rounding it's zero. Then there's a point one now. It's back in zero. It's probably rounding it. It's probably tickly point four nine. Then yesterday jumped to point five one. Now, it's like, I guess we'll be back to the point four nine. So, but at any rate, yeah, that's, that's what I'll say, you know, like they did their part two keep it interesting. Like if they were going to make the playoffs, they needed a lot of things to happen. It was failures on other ends, right? But it's not just other teams failing. They had to actually go out there. And like we said, you have to win at least two out of three every game at, well, at some point going for it. You just, you're just going to have to do it. And technically, again, it's, it's, they won what six series in a row. This would have been seven if they had the cubs, but of course,

7:17inferior. They didn't win seven series in a row, but when you sweep and they went out three, like you said, I'm going to form two on the trip. They've kind of been doing that. You know, they've kind of been going two out of three. And so again, like on their part, they've been doing what they need to do. It's just, well, you have two teams that are also wild card contenders. And they're, they're pretty, pretty good. And they're kind of keeping pace with you also. And that's for that. Like after it's all said and done, like there's still the pirates are six and a half games back right now. You know, that that's why again, we're talking about, oh, abilities of this. It's, it's very improbable. It's going to happen because you don't, you can't just win two out of three. You need to win two out of three. And other teams need to be dropping and dropping and dropping. And oh, yeah, here's, here's where they stand. So any rate, I mean, they are, like you said, a 500 baseball team right now. They're 75 and 75. I don't know if that's something that's like, go out there and celebrate, but this team has been resilient all year long for the most part.

8:18You know, like that, that's what we, I think the best way to describe this team, they, they had that collapse, you know, after all star break, they weren't able to really recover from it, but they continue to play their ass off. And they still do. And like that to me, mean something. I guess it means something. Okay, I'll agree with you. It means something. It doesn't mean, it doesn't mean enough. It doesn't mean something. Yeah. Yeah. I said, Alex had a really good episode last week where he talked about, like, does 500 actually mean anything? And it got in, like, I went into the episode, I was like, no, no, it doesn't. That means you're average, right? But then he went through it and he was like, this team's only been that. I think, like, I think the number was like eight times since Dave Parker was on the team.

9:21Yeah. I mean, it, like, this hasn't happened very often in the last 45 years of Pirates Baseball. Right. I mean, in my lifetime that I can remember, right? Because I can't really remember the that 90, 90, 92 stretch. It's happened four times that this team has gone 500. I always forget too much. There's way too much gray in my beard, Denardo, for this two have only happened four times that I remember. So yeah, you know, he kind of have people laid at birthday, Buck O'Mike. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Buck O'Mike's birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday. Speaking of gray in the beard, but no, it's, it's, it's something, right? I mean, this, this team, they're, they're typically not this good. They're typically bad. They're, like, the season's over by this point. Steelers played yesterday, right? By this time, the Pirates are typically,

10:25you're not even thinking about them. And it's been a while since you've really thought of them. And, and they've, they've made you think of them. Which, again, I don't, I don't want to say that that's an accomplishment by, by any means. But it's something. But it is reality. It's something. Yeah. Yeah. So like, let me explain in this sense, I don't look at it and say, like this arbitrary number of 500 is meaningful that, hey, you hit the 500 mark, that means something, the way I look at it, okay, because also it's taken step back here when playoffs are the expectations, right? When it's like, it's playoffs. 500 shouldn't be some lethal back. It's like, well, hey, at least we did that. Like, well, 500 means this season was a failure. Playoffs were the expectation, right? 500 is a failure. What I believe in it, and I think what it does mean is, again, going back to where this team was,

11:29they were having around 500. I mean, this was a team that was always, it was never, right? At what point of season was very latent to season. It was, you know, past the also break where this team was never more than like two games below, but like, never more than two games above. Like, it always just perfectly sat there, right? The never have go these long stretches of losing. Again, resiliency, right? They are always right there in the thick of things. And then the wheels kind of fell off. But they came back, you know, they still fought. That is why to me, there's meaning behind it, understanding where the season went, and they didn't just fall off. They didn't just go away. They still were fighting. They're still doing it. They went and, you know, it was the first time they won five series in rows since 2018. After 2015, 2015. Okay. So that's why to me, there's meaning behind it. And agree or disagree with this, you know, because we're going to be questions coming up soon, right? We talked about Don Kelly. Like to me, that speaks a lot about Don Kelly, though, as well.

12:35So that's a good segue, because one of the things I did want to talk about this morning was Don Kelly. Now, a lot of our conversation this morning is going to kind of assume that like the economics of baseball kind of continues its status quo, right? The the, what we'll get into the front office a little bit too. But I want to ask you about Don Kelly, because you know, he got the job last year after Shelton was canned. They never really gave him the interim tag. They were like, no, you are the manager. And then he was retained for the coming season. He went roughly 500 last year, I think, as the manager, like kind of right around that 500 mark this year, right around that 500 mark with a with a better team on paper is, you know, as we're sitting right now. And you mentioned like he's the thing I will say this about Don Kelly is, I think the players respect the hell out of them. And they, they compete their asses off for

13:45Don Kelly. Like he's done a really good job of getting this team to, you know, stay engaged throughout all this. Like it would have been really easy for for this team a month ago. Just be like, well, it's over, right? And they didn't do that. Like they, they came back and, and they've played really good baseball this last month. So like how much, how much credit do you give Don Kelly for that? Do you say, you know what? Like I'm looking at the way these guys are playing this team is making improvements. Don Kelly should should be the guy going forward. Or do you look at it and say, you know what, on paper, this probably should have been a playoff team. You look at the war values of this team. You know, it's one of the best in baseball. You look at run differential and based off of run differential, this is a playoff team. They're vastly underperforming their pathag pathag record, right? So like there, there are signs that this team is vastly underperforming.

14:52At the same time, there are signs where, you know what, these guys are playing really hard for this guy. And they made a really, it was a pretty big step up from last year. So I think the Don Kelly conversation is interesting because yeah, I mean, they're going to have to make a decision on on all these guys. Like, does the front office come back? Does the manager come back? Does the coaching staff come back? And I think today's, you know, we want to kind of talk about Don Kelly a little bit. I agree that it's interesting. It's certainly polarizing. Everyone who, I mean, our audience has listened to this right now. I'm quite sure there are some that agree that he should be back. And there are some that very much agree. He was the problem. Like, maybe single handedly the problem this year. We've seen the comments on all of our socials, right? Don Kelly probably cost his team 25 losses. Now, that's not the case. Like no manager cost a team that many losses. Just point

15:59like he had a horrible bullpen situation early on the season. And again, a lot of the issues were his bullpen usage. You have Dennis Santana pitching the way he had you have Isaac Matt's in pitch way he had Soto during that stretch starting to pitch the way that he was pitching as well. Montgomery not coming to be the Montgomery that we've now seen, you know, like it was a terrible situation. A lot was put on Donnie's hands for that. No, I'm sorry. Now, let's go back. And I'm just going to speak for myself here, obviously, when Shelton was hired. And through his tenure, I've always said that for me, the biggest part of a manager is keeping your team engaged, right? Like that's not the X's and O's too much. It's the stuff that you don't really see to me that really makes a manager because most managers are, air quotes, terrible

17:06at baseball. Almost every fan base hates their manager. You know, I keep, I always go back to the Cubs and Guardians World Series when Terry Francois was up there with Joe Madden and Joe Madden knew nothing about baseball. And I'm saying that as a fan perspective, right? He goes out there, he makes this move that doesn't make any sense. Where Terry Francois was like pulling all the right strings with Andrew Miller and all this and who ends up winning Joe Madden. Right? Like, but Joe Madden's notorious for just his antics and getting the team prepared and being in and all this and blah, blah, blah, right? And like Derek Shelton, I felt was always closer to that. I felt like you said about Don Kelly here, like the players respected the hell out of Shelton and they would fight for him until they did it. Like to me, it was time when Shelton went and Kelly, I see of a lot of that too. I mean, he's, he isn't experienced. This is the first time managing. Do I think he can certainly improve on the X's and O's? Absolutely. Do I think he was so egregious that it outweighs what I think he'd provide to this clubhouse and this organization? No. I like Don Kelly. I would be okay,

18:13absolutely okay, retaining him. I'm not out here. You need to fire him. But I will say this, like if they do decide to look at the things you're talking about and say, I think for this organization and this team, it makes sense to go out there and get somebody else. Now, of course, once that higher happens, then I'll certainly judge it. You know, but if they decided to, I would be open to it. I'm not here to pound the table, say you need to keep Don Kelly. I would, but if they decided to change hands and like take a new direction, I'll sit back and listen. Yeah, I want to share something. I don't know if you caught this, this graphic that was put out. It was last weekend. It was put out and it was a Twitter account. It was a Detroit Tigers Twitter account. Detroit Tigers stats account. And basically this account, it created a new statistic.

19:19Now there's a there's caveats that come with this. I know you're essentially, he essentially said, like there's no way these numbers are correct, right? But more so, like look at the rankings of it because that's probably a little bit more accurate than the actual numbers associated with it. So created a stat called manager adjusted wins per 162 games. And essentially what he did is he estimated the manager impact using situation adjusted pinch hit win probability adders. A lot of nerd stuff in here. Bullpen change win probability added leaving the picture in a danger spot win probability added late game conversions, challenge success lineup adjustments, defensive adjustments. Basically took all this and assigned a number to it. And this is what he came up with. I'm going to take the overlay off here so everybody can see it. But

20:26essentially saying that he like don mattingly Kevin Cash, Terry Francoina, those are the three best managers in baseball. Three worst, Vatelo for the Giants, AJ Hinch for the the Dynavac Suzuki for the angels. But it does have it has Don Kelly ranked 25th here. And manager adjusted wins. Again, don't look at the numbers because like there's no way that a manager is adding 17 wins to a total. There's no way a manager is deducting 24 wins from a total. But I think it is interesting to just kind of see it stacked up like this. Where like hey, like essentially what this chart is saying is did your did your decisions pay off? Right. And you can even say that that's not even necessarily a managerial thing, right? This is a hindsight graphic really is what it is. Because at the end of the day, the player still have to get a job done. But if you look at this,

21:32it stacks up all the managers and Don Kelly doesn't look too good. And again, like I'm sharing this graphic just because I want to I want you to see the rankings of it. I don't want you to look at the number. Like I don't think Don Kelly cost this team 8.3 wins this season. Right. It's probably a little bit too high. But I think Don Kelly in his decision-making has certainly hurt the pirates more than he's helped the pirates this year. Like I think that's fair to say. And I guess you have to figure out how much of that is on Don Kelly, how much of that is on the players. But like Saturday, for example, like you're leaving Gregory Soto in to face a bunch of right-handed

22:33batters and you don't even have Luke Weaver warming up. You don't have Mason Montgomery. Like these are games that you have to win, absolutely have to win. And he doesn't have those guys warming up. And even a acknowledges post-game like, hey, yeah, in hindsight, I probably should have had Luke Weaver warming up. I think there's just too many little instances like that. And again, like this, the reason why the pirates were weather at today is a culmination of a lot of things. We've talked about it all year. Like every year this team has every week it seemed like this team was losing one or two games that is should have won. And a lot of that falls on the players. But it does seem like Don Kelly, especially recently when the bullpen got a little bit better. Like he just seems to stick with guys a little bit too long. He's not utilizing all the weapons that he has at his disposal at the

23:42right time. And again, I don't think anything that Don Kelly could have done over the last month ends up changing the result of this season. But I'm going to take the opposite stance as you, right? Where you say, hey, like I would be fine. Like you said you would be fine if they moved on from Kelly, but you like him and you think that he should get another shot. I'm going to take the opposite stance. Like I'm going to be fine if they retain him. But I think it's time to move on. Yeah, that's fair. And I like, I don't, you don't get that many chances at this. Like this was the year period full stop, right? You had to make the postseason. And there's got to be, there's got to be respond like like people need to pay for that. Like if you didn't make the postseason. And like I I liked Don Kelly, I think that the players like him. And I think that's the main job of a manager.

24:47Like I think he's doing the main job of a manager very well. But it's like the little things that I feel like he's, he just hasn't done correctly. And I don't think those little things necessarily make this team a postseason team all of a sudden. But yeah, I, I'm ready to try something new. And it's not just Don Kelly. Like this goes higher up to like, I mean, this isn't me saying this is all Don Kelly's fault. Like this is this is everybody's fault. But yeah, I'm going to take the opposite stance. If you like, if Don Kelly is the manager in 2027, I'm fine with that. But I think it's time to try something else. Okay. Yeah. I think what this does show though is I mean, would be fair to say, I mean, neither of us have a strong stance on it. You, you hedge towards moving. I think that's worth staying. But neither of us are, I mean, again, whatever happens, I don't think any of us are

25:49just going to be like, Oh, this is tear again, unless what comes next, right? Like if if the replacement is the next, you know, bench coach for the Pirates or you know, something like that, like it says something stupid, then it's like, Okay, now what tell is going on, right? But the keeping or removing of Don Kelly in a vacuum, I don't think either of us are going to have a very hard opinion, depending on what that move is, you know, like, okay, you know, what I get it. If they decide to move on, well, you know what? And again, I would side that, but it's like, you know what? Good for them. Like they, they want to do better. Big picture and the grand scheme of things like that, that's hopefully good. That's a good mentality. That's what this was an acceptable. We need better. And we were going to strive to do that. And it's like, Okay, well, then you know what? Like good for them. There might be some buyers remorse here. There might be some regret. You know, like who's the next

26:49guy up? Again, I think Don Kelly does a lot of the good stuff that's behind the scenes that you don't really see. You know, and that's why like Neil, Neil, right, the token manager lover of this pod. I mean, I do tend to side with him a lot of things. And again, with me, I felt Shelton lost that. And it was absolutely time to go. Even though there's a lot of the same excuses you could have for Shelton back then, you know, as you do with Don Kelly the first half, right? Well, what was Shelton going to go with? Right? Well, it was his choices. I just felt like he lost a club house. There wasn't a whole lot of fight left. Don Kelly brought that back, I think, with his 15. But anyway, that's this is certainly a topic to discuss. And the season's not over yet. I don't know if there's going to be much that changes anything over the next, what 12 games? Chains. You know, we have one more buck a brew in season. That's it. That's crazy. Second one's going to be the day after it's over. Yeah, but yeah, I don't even much going to change. I think the book's pretty much

27:53out there on Don Kelly. So yeah, that's going to be certainly a big question this off season. Yeah, I think he's got his strengths as a manager. I think he's got his weaknesses as a manager. I don't know if one necessarily heavily outweighs the other. But I'm good with trying something new at this point. It also goes back to what I said last year to some level that he's heavily coveted lock it with all kind of him. He will be an animal manager one day. I felt like back then it's not fair to him. I'm good for him and everything, but like it might not be fair to him for him to start here. Might be fair for him to go somewhere else as a fresh face. And what I'll say to that is knowing that it was here and came in, I thought he did better

28:54than I expected. I'll say this like the way that the team last year's team was dead when he took him over. Right, right. And he at least got them playing like respectable baseball. It's just like, it's what I mean to them. Yeah, like this team on paper this season was so much better than last year's team. And here we are. Like he's he's it's the same. It's really the same. Like last year's record obviously was a whole lot worse, but that's because of where they started when he took over. But but overall he's he's been a 500 manager since the get go. And that is going back to the point I raised earlier in the episode. It's it's something it's something that this team hasn't seen a whole lot of like how many managers has this team had over the last 50 years with a record over 500.

29:56What two or three? Yeah, I mean not many, right? Right. Leeland did it a few times and and hurdle did it a few times. That's it. So if Kelly can be around that, that's that's better than most. Still not good enough though. All fair. All fair. Let's talk about some more before we do. Tell you about the sponsor of our show. Of course, the fair coffee and tea. DeFair is a family and employee owned and operated business. They believe that coffee and tea are one of life's simplest and most accessible pleasures. And when enjoy thoughtfully can open your eyes to the hero now. They have five locations across the city of Pittsburgh, including the flagship and the heart of Pittsburgh historic strip district. Don't forget the stuff by the fairs new location downtown Avenue right across the bedroom. Grab a cup and feel upon your walk to PNC part of ordering is available and check out the Instagram for more details and of course Jim to everyone how they can save themselves 30% yeah go to defer.coffee.defer.coffee. Load up your cart put in promo code

31:02ns930 and you'll save 30% off your first order online boom there it is go do it. Hey it's Kelly Rowland you may not know this but I have Exama so I get how it can steal your time but why let Exama take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglyss. Epglyss. Lebrichizmablbkz. A 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe Exama. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies Epglyss can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglyss. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyss. Before starting Epglyss tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyss and visit Epglyss.com

32:03or call 1-800-LilyRx or 1-800-545-5979. So there's the manager. What do you want to talk about next? First off before we even get too far we're doing the fundraiser still for the Clemente Museum. That is going to be happening all throughout today so you can donate on any of our live streams from this past weekend. You can donate on offbeat this morning. You can donate on this show. But we're trying to raise as much money as possible for the Clemente Museum. Any dollar that you contribute will be matched by NS9. We're matching up to $1,050 in total donations. So yeah click on the little button. If you're on your mobile phone I think there's a button that just says donate now underneath the show. If you're on your computer there's like a heart hand, the symbol. Click on

33:04that. And yeah whatever you can donate donate. It's going to a great cause. And yeah we're going to match everything dollar for dollar up to that amount. So just want to get that out of the way there. Clemente Day is tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15th. That's across all of Major League Baseball. So we're going to kind of be celebrating that up until tomorrow's post game show. So but yeah let's kind of continue this whole discussion about questions. I think there's still something to play for here. But at the same time we've seen a lot of baseball now. I mean like like I said we've seen 150 games worth worth of baseball. And so I think it is time to start looking at the offseason a little bit. And hey what what do what does this team need to address over the offseason to come back better next year. And so I think there are a lot of positions now that you

34:10can look at and say you know what I feel pretty good about this. I feel pretty good about it. I don't think they really need to go out and do anything. Whereas maybe previous offseason it was like we need some help here. I think the team has less holes now than it did before. But I think there's still some holes. But I'm curious to get kind of kind of your thoughts and kind of share what I think is terms of like who I feel comfortable with going into next year. And again this is all assuming economic status of baseball stays the same. If all of a sudden the cap and floor system gets put in place and the pirates have to spend $180 million next year and they've got you know $100 million to spend. Then this is going to change right because they can go out and they can do a whole lot more things. But assuming the same I'm curious to see like kind of who you feel comfortable with heading into next year. And I've got a couple questions. One I want to start with first base. I want to start with first base because going into this year I think this was

35:17a position where I was like I will spend some more words was the best player on the team last year. I think we're pretty good there. He hasn't been that good this year. He's you know he's had some health issues and he started off this season outstanding but has since come back pretty bad. Like I mean he's been really bad lately. His is war now is 0.1. His weight run is created plus his 99s below average which you simply can't have a below average hitting first baseman. Like you can't you can't have that. So I'm curious on if you are comfortable with Spencer Horowitz moving forward. If you're just chalking this season up to a you know this is a blip because historically he's not like has a ton of past but his past is good. So yeah what are your thoughts on first base moving forward. I'm good. Like I am I'm good because honestly and you might

36:21understand why I'm going to say this as we go further and talk about you know players and other positions and such. Spencer Horowitz and Ryan are her like there's your first baseman and then as a relevant valdez also a complete first and I think you know again this year it almost kind of made sense and he played it like they go at one game but like they made it a point that like no he's going to just focus on the outfield and I think that's something like he is a rookie just just let him focus on the outfield get him a custom here like don't give him too much. So I understand that but like maybe next year like he also does an option like I I'm fine with first base. I think you have plenty of options per first base. I'm okay with it. Now obviously this other thing I'm going to say here next to is I mean again we got about Spencer. He talked about O'Hern. He talked about his Merlin like he's got to come back healthy but at some point if and when the endy comes back if he like I think more first base for him is an option like I think

37:23have plenty of options at first base. I don't think you really need to go invest money into that position next year. I agree with you and I think I agree with the reason I agree with you is because Ryan O'Hern. The emergence of his Merlin Valdes and Wright Field I feel a lot better about that corner outfield position and I feel better about O'Hern playing more first base if necessary. I also believe in Spencer Horowitz. I think this is I think that a lot of this has to do with maybe just coming back from the injury. He seems like he seems like someone and we saw this last year too where it just takes him a while to get going. Last year he didn't have this training. Last year he didn't have the spring training. The spring training was kind of his first half of the season. He didn't perform very well and he finished out. Just awesome. This year he has the spring training. He comes out hitting the ball at an all-star level almost. Gets hurt, comes back and it's not

38:29clicking form. I guess what I could be worried about is if there's a really quick spring training next year. If they miss a little bit of the beginning of the year and there's one and a half week long spring training then Horowitz comes back and takes them still a little bit longer. I think long term I'm not too worried about Spencer Horowitz. Again, Ryan O'Hern, they're kind of as an insurance policy is nice too. I'm with you there. I don't have too many issues. Let's see some comments about Andy in the live chat too. At this point I'm not counting on Andy on anything from Andy Rodriguez. If you get anything from Andy then I'm good with it. Whether that's behind the plate or not behind the plate, I'm not counting on for anything at all. In terms of going back behind the plate from what I've been told, this injury shouldn't have any

39:33issues on him moving forward. Once it's healed, it's healed and it shouldn't be a problem. But I think he's shown over the last few years that he is prone to breaking down and getting injured, whatever it may be. Some of those are fluky. There's elbow injury. I feel like those are more fluky injuries. But yeah, that kind of got to suffer a point a little bit. But okay, so first base you're comfortable with. Shortstop, obviously, we're both comfortable with. We've got a guy there for the next eight years. Center field, O'Neill Cruz, comfortable with. Yeah. Left field, Brian Reynolds, comfortable with. Right field, Valdez. Let me do TBD. Okay. What do you mean by that? TBD. You need two more weeks of all days to decide?

40:37Who's not going to get on the list? I guess to answer your question right now, I'm comfortable-ish. Comfortable-ish. Yeah. But then you also, you'll understand why I'm saying that here shortly. What if like CPL says, because if there is, if there is no salary cap, you're looking at the salaries on this team, you know, Reynolds and Keller are getting up to the point where they're going to be taking up a good chunk of salary. Is Brian Reynolds someone that, you know, assuming economic status of baseball stays the same? Is Brian Reynolds somebody you're looking to move this off season? I could be talked into it. This is one of the things where it's like, I don't think there should be a definite, I'm drawing a line in the sand side to that. It's, Oma, it's like, oh, well, if you are, what's the other side of this going to look like? You know, like, I can't say, oh,

41:44they're trading Reynolds on that. I'm done. It's well okay. So then what's that? Because I can understand why, right? Because the economics of this, I mean, they're going to be at $100 million next year. I mean, Ethan put out there, he's done 2027 more or less. Right now, they're tracking to be over $100 million on the payroll. Is that things stand? So that's without making any moves. I don't know what payroll is going to look like next year. I mean, attendance is almost essentially the same as it was two years ago. They're at 1.75, I think right now, they're like 1.5. There's what nine games left. Like, it's probably going to be about the same. I don't know that means for payroll next year. And they broke $100 million this year when everyone was like, I don't know if they were going to do that, you know, this year and whatnot. So they're at $100 million. I think Mitch Keller makes a ton of sense. But it's also what are you doing on the side of that? Right? And again, I think if you're choosing one of the other Mitch Keller makes more sense, then Brian Reynolds are going to get more for Brian Reynolds and Mitch Keller. But I don't think that's

42:48what matters here. I think it's how do I free up more money? It's like last year's trade deadline. The thing is, how do I free up money to go and reinvest that into something else? So I would be okay, but what's the other side that look like? Yeah. I think you've got to be open to the idea of trading Brian Reynolds, but it's got to make sense for you. Because right now, I don't think they have an immediate replacement. I guess you could, you know, you could move all does to left and you could put O'Hern and right and you could go whore, what's at first. But then that kind of puts you into the situation that you were in this year, where where like O'Hern probably shouldn't be playing in the outfield every single day. Right. And I mean, who knows if it's to blame, but you know, O'Hern had to extend it IL since where I don't know, O'Hern's deaching a bit more if he's playing first base a bit more.

43:49Did those injuries happen? I don't know. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. But he is playing more outfield than he's ever played, you know, in his entire career. So I think ideally you want to keep O'Hern out of the outfield, you know, every day. You don't want him to be an everyday outfielder. So if you have Reynolds, if you have Cruz, if you have Valdes, and you have O'Hern, and you have Horwitz, then you can do kind of what we, and you know, Fathos was going to do before they signed O'Zuna, which was, hey, everybody gets some time off. Everybody can, you know, get that DH time, get some time off their feet a little bit. And maybe that helps with longevity a little bit. Brian Reynolds, I mean, he had that stretch, you know, where, you know, right after the All Star break, he was really bad. But overall, this has been a really good season for Brian Reynolds. He's got 120 weight, runs, created plus. He's a three-war. I mean, it's going to be his best

44:49year since 2021. And I wouldn't trade him just to dump the salary. Like if I'm trading Brian Reynolds, like I'm getting something back, that's really nice. Yeah, I'm not completely closing the door to it, but it's like you've got to, you're going to have to pay up for him because he's a good player. Keller on the other hand, I could see them doing just the classic salary dump. Because he can't pitch like he did this year again, especially if you're going to be paying him 20 plus million dollars. He can't do that. And I think there's enough young arms in this system that you've got a good enough core for that rotation. And between schemes, Ashcraft, Bubba, Jones, that you can supplement it with somebody else, you know, a couple other arms if you need to. Reynolds, though, I put it a little different boat than Keller, where he's just, you're going to have to, you're

45:54going to have to pay up if you want Brian. Like we're not just going to give him away. I agree. I'm not going to say, okay, so this is, I'm not comfortable. I'm not comfortable. But it still goes down to the thing we're like this year. I think the catching position was a lot better. A lot of people expected or not expected than a lot of people realize. Rafael Flores, has looked more comfortable behind the plate. That's, that's maybe more comfortable about him as a long-term solution at catcher, right? The actual catching part of the, the equation here he's looking better at behind the plate with. And again, like you have Jacob Stallings, you know, we talked about the, you know, the coaching like we, there's a good situation there to help guys be

46:55better catchers. So the bats, the bats also look pretty good. Again, still a small sample, right? I don't know if I'm ready to go ahead and circle Rafael Flores is a starting catcher and that will be, like it's, it's very short live. That's why I put out that tweet there. I mean, you remember Henry Davis is for 110 at bats. We had the 132 with Runs Creative Plus and he looked like a beast. Well, he's not that guy. So like, you know, I'm not ready to say like Rafael Flores definitely is. But we know what Henry Davis is and if that's a backup catcher, that's something I think he'd be comfort with as a backup catcher. Rafael Flores and again, he said, Endy, same situation like Endy last year was like, I'm not counting on Endy as a catcher for this team. I don't know what I'm counting on in the future in general, but he's still there. I'm not counting on any from him. So like, I would be fine adding something else, but like, I don't think you need to go out there and get like a marquee catcher. I mean, having this year's offense was perfectly fine. So like, I don't think you have to, but I'm not comfortable with it. You know, I'm not staring and saying like, we're good here,

48:00move on to something else. Like I talked about with first base. I could upgrade, but there are other holes too. Yeah, you mentioned how I feel like a lot of people like to complain about the catcher situation. This team is the 11th and baseball and weighted runs created plus their catchers, their 11th, their above average for total war catching war. They're rice smack that with the middle at 15th. So like this, like catching is not really an issue for this team. As much as you want to look at Henry Davis and say, like, God, this guy cannot hit. Henry Davis for the most part. Yeah, which is true. But the most part though, Henry Davis over the last couple months has been treated like a backup catcher. Like he's playing once, maybe twice a week lately. And the ones who have been playing, whether that was Andy or Flores have been performing at the plate. So yeah, I think if the opportunity like presents itself where you can improve here,

49:04you can take it, but this is not a priority for me. Like right now, I feel like they're in a pretty good spot. I wouldn't say I'm like putting all my eggs in the Raphael Flores junior basket. You know, I do think he's looked really good. And I think in terms of just major league catchers as a hole, I think he's probably one of the better hitting ones out there. He's always going to be swinging this, but the power, I think it's pretty legit. So yeah, I think, I think like, this is a position where you always look to improve, but there are other things to address before this. Like third base. Okay. Right. Like like third base is a position where they think they got to figure something out there.

50:10Yeah. So Nick is all of his not the answer to third. And Jared Trill is not the answer for third for different reasons. Jared Trill is just not a starting caliber player. He's probably fine having him on a team, but he's not a starting caliber player. Nick and Zalus is the bad place. We see, I mean, the guys here battling for a batting's at all. Right. The bad place, but it can't be a third. It just can't. We understand why it was this year. And it hurt the team. I mean, the bad helps. I'm not saying he hurt the team. Like, I'm not saying Nick and Zalus was a net negative for the team, but his defense at third didn't hurt the team. It didn't outweigh his production on, you know, at the plate, but him playing third hurt the team. Can't he can't be that next year. He cannot. So yes, I'm not comfortable with third base as it

51:14as it was this year. You have Murph Gray in the wings. He seems to be a pre-legit prospect to some level. I don't know what level you you feel with him. I don't know what level who end up being. He's still just in AA. I mean, it's like it's on like the Esmeralyn type route of, you know, he just got the AA. Like, I'll probably start a triple. And I should like, I can't say even to start him on opening day. And I keep the answer to he's an option. He's an interesting option. But he's also a prospect. And it'll be a rookie next year. He's there. And again, same thing. You know, we talk about rookies. You've got to afford them opportunity to develop and whatnot. And you can't just pencil him as the answer either, but he is an option. That's why I think there's you could get you can get creative here. So no, I'm not comfortable. I don't know if there's an answer internally. But I don't know if you're going to fully invest into a major option at the base together.

52:18Yeah, I'm curious on how they approach this because it's not, I don't want to compare it to this year's shortstop situation because Connor Griffin and Murph Gray are not the same caliber player. Connor Griffin, you knew was this is your heir apparent at shortstop. And as soon as he's ready, he's going to take over and he's going to be your shortstop. As much as we want to believe that about Murph Gray and third base, like you can't, I don't think you can't count on that. Like you could count on it with Connor Griffin. Connor Griffin was number one prospected baseball. Murph Gray is borderline top 100 prospect. And we've seen borderline top, we've seen top 100 prospects, claim out all the time. This team is littered with top 100 prospects who have claimed out, right? They just acquired one who is also in the third base mix with Jacob Gonzalez. Their backup catcher is one with Henry Davis. Like there, there are a plenty of former top,

53:22it can Zalas, another one that we just talked about. Like these are all, these are all former top 100 prospects that are in the third base mix. And you can't count on any of them. So yeah, this is going to be interesting because also like Murph Gray moved up a lot this year. Like he started the season in Bradenton, was his first season of pro ball. He didn't play it all last season. Move to Greensboro, moved out tuna. He's just, I mean, he's destroying the ball. He is 32 homers, but you also have to kind of keep in mind. 15 of those came in Greensboro. The minor league baseballs are clearly juiced out of, like out to wazoo this season, right? Like the minor league home run rates are skyrocketed. So like, you got to look at the home run number and you have to look at it in a way of, okay, you know, if this were last year, how many maybe would he have hit? You know, any home run in Greensboro, it basically counts as like a half of a home run in real life to me. So, you know,

54:25that 30 now, out tuna is a little bit different. Out tuna is a more of a picture friendly environment and the east certainly as well. So, you know, those are, those are probably a little bit more legit. But again, juiced baseballs, like the juiced baseballs are certainly a thing. There's, Murph Gray doesn't hit 32 homeruns if this is last season. Doesn't happen. But like everything else looks really good. Like he's walking at a good clip. He's striking out at a good clip. The defensive third base is good on all accounts. Like he does look like a good legit third base prospect. You cannot, you absolutely cannot count on him though to be your opening day third baseman next year. If he wants to go out there and win the job, go ahead and let him. But you need to go out there and address their base at least for one season. If it's just, and I have to, like we haven't gotten to the, like we'll dig into this during the off season, but they do need to go out there, I think, and get at least a one year stopgap at their base.

55:33And however they may do that, maybe they do that sort of like they, how they address second base this year with trading for brand and allow trading for a guy in the last year of his contract, trading for an R3 guy, trading, you know, whether that's signing a free agent, whatever it may be, they need to go out there and they need to find a starting third baseman for next season. Yeah. I'm not going to turn this in a Murph Gray show. He's very interesting. Like he said, there's a lot of good stuff to like about him, but it's the same thing. Like if you're, if you're serious, right, next year's going to be a playoff team, I think you need to have an actual solution there to some level. Like I don't think it has to be an all-star caliber like brand and allow person. Of course, I'd like that. I think it has to be per se, but yes, you need to have something there to at least hedge a little bit here because right Murph Gray is probably not starting an opening day. I mean, even Conor didn't use it. I'm going to prospect the baseball is one year under his belt here. You need to know the beginning and then you need him to develop and stuff. And yeah,

56:36anyways, to move forward, I'm not comfortable. So, but I don't think you need a long-term solution. Before we go to the next positions, I tell you all about Lerine Co. So a lot of people that I know use nicotine pouches and the part that missed the most isn't so much the nicotine as the routine. Lerine just, I actually know what, let me do something here. Let me put the pull it up here. Lerine Co pouches are pouches that swap out the nicotine and give you clean focus and support your NAML the whole time they're in. And because this is Lerine, every pouch also has NANO hydrooxypetite, the material or teeth they're made of. So it gives you daily NAML support in between brushes. Every other pouch out there makes you pick between some of that helps you focus and some that's actually good for your teeth. This is the only one designed to do both and it comes with a brand that's leading the way supporting your oral health. Give Lerine a try. Right now, Lerine Co is offering our listeners up to 50% off at thebyelorine.com slash norshore that's byelorine.lari.ne.com slash norshore for up to 50% off.

57:47As I mentioned, you should have less than that. Here's mine. Got the pouch. We got the boxes. Good to go. You know who's a free agent next year on the third base market? Who? Anthony Rendon. Let's get him. That contract is finally ending after this season. Boom. I gotta imagine he's gonna retire, right? Like, there's no way he, there's no way he's playing another baseball game. What's the last time he did play a baseball game? 20, 20, 19, 19, 27. Oh, been a while. Yeah. Yeah, he's not playing a baseball game. He's made $70 million since the last time he played a baseball game. There goes my hero. Yeah, for real. That dude, he was like, well, I'm gonna get paid and then I'm gonna go be a family man. He has been played more than 57 games since 2019.

58:53All right. So it sounds like we're kind of on the same page there. Second base. What you want me to say is bring back Brandon Lowe. No, they're going to be comfortable there because you have Brandon Lowe. And although I am not going to ever argue if Brandon Lowe is in a positive form next year, I, the more I look into this, Jim, I am okay letting Brandon Lowe walk. I'm okay with that. I think you can absolutely make some sense of it. I appreciate Brandon Lowe. Brandon Lowe was a big part of the reason why this team was where it is this year. And then I say that in a positive way, not the negative way. I mean, because I guess he had their, they're not making it. It's not because of Brandon Lowe. Right. He is a reason why this offense is one of the better offenses in baseball. Point blank. Put up one of the better seasons as I could baseman in pirate's history. But what do we just talk about with Nick and

59:59he cannot be a third base. He just simply cannot be. And I'm not here to tell you like his defense at second is outstanding, but it's certainly fine. It's certainly fine. And Nick and Zal is being a second base makes the Gonzalez better. Like he's, he's a better version of himself if he was a second baseman opposed to the third baseman. And we already talked about your fine with this position, the opposition, the opposition, the opposition, the opposition, where are you putting in Gonzalez next year? Him being at second base, I am perfectly fine with. Now you need to replace Brandon Lowe's offense, right? Like you need to replace him in some way or some manner to some level here, right? You'll be taking a step back offensively. And I just think this is why again, when I said TBD, this is why I think honestly what makes the most sense is letting him walk and adding an outfielder like replace Brandon Lowe with a corner outfielder

1:01:00somewhere and a right handed outfielder because it out again, this team was terrible against left handed pitching, adding a right handed bat, putting them in the outfield, I think does a lot for this team as far as the construction. It evens out the splits here a little bit. And for everything we just talked about with Ryan or her, like having him play the outfield less is also a positive for this team and for him. If he is in the D H role a little more often at first base, a little more often in the outfit a lot less. His longevity, well, he's only here, so I signed for one of your deal, but it's like him being able to stay on the field for next year for the whole season probably improves. Reynolds, you can sign the D H a little bit more. Now you have the ability of the D H is open. It's now free to be used among everyone. That's why I mentioned Jake Mangel. Like Jake Mangel showed he's very capable, Major Leaker. There's now two seasons where you know what? He's fine. He's fine. You want to give Ryan or

1:02:05her day off put Mangel in there? Do it. You want to give Ryan Reynolds day off put Mangel in there? Do it. The D H now being that rotating role to give these guys days off to keep a little more fresh. I am letting LaWaq and replacing him with a corner outfielder, a right-handed corner outfielder. I guess more again or it could be the third base. You're still getting it. I'm still absolutely getting it outfielder. If the big bat is by way of third base then safety. But again, that's how I'm letting LaWaq, Gonzalez is my second baseman and I'm going to get LaWaq's replacements there. I'm going to start off by saying that I think I would be comfortable

1:03:12with Nick Gonzalez as my starting second baseman. Like I think it would be just fine. But I think you got to try to get better if you can. And I would rather, like if you're telling me, I brought this up earlier, if you're telling me, moving Gonzalez second base makes him a better player, I agree with you. But Brandon LaWa's second base is still the better player than Nick Gonzalez. So I'm still trying to bring back Brandon LaWaq. That would be probably my number one thing to do this offseason. Outside that and I'd like to say, addressing third base. I think those are the top two things. And if you're telling me, like, maybe you can get value elsewhere, like maybe you trade Nick Gonzalez

1:04:13for that corner outfielder or whatever you need. But I'm absolutely looking to, I'm comfortable with Nick Gonzalez's second, but I'm absolutely looking to improve that situation. That means figuring out a way to bring Brandon LaWaq, then that's what you do. So that's where I'm at. I don't think he's going to have over four war this season. It's just he's just the swing is perfect for PNC Park. He's the perfect, it's per pirate. I feel like he's always, he's also always that guy. It's like Clubhouse leader. Like after a loss, you can always tell after losses, like who's the guy in the Clubhouse who is like, you know what, guys, I'll talk about this one. After pirates losses, the only quotes you read in the newspaper are from Brandon LaW. Right? Like, I feel like Brandon LaWa is the guy where like after a loss, he's like, hey guys,

1:05:16I'll talk. I'll talk to the media. You guys can go on, do whatever you want. I'll be the guy to talk to. And that's that's like a big deal. He's a leader. He's a really good player. He's having an awesome season. He just he fits in so well with this team. Everybody seems to love him. I think I got a way to bring Brandon LaW back. That's that's that is a priority for me. Okay. Again, if Brandon LaWa is a pirate next year, I am not weeping. Right? Yeah. Oh my god, I'll get it by no means, right? But I what I will say is if they do not retain him, I'm not going to be the one that's going to be pounding the table. And like, this is this is stupid. This is cheap. Like, I understand and I if I'm GM and I'm giving those chains now again, like things can happen, right? But like, I don't know if that is a priority for me. I think I can make sense of Nick Gonzalez. I'm comfortable with Nick Gonzalez to be in a second. That makes him better. So you're getting a better version of Nick Gonzalez who again, like if he's

1:06:21not that solution at third and he do bring it back. LaW, like, where's Nick Gonzalez go? Yes. I think that makes sense. Yeah. So that's it. So he would have to get trade at that point. And that's where, okay. So now again, the onslaught, like if you do extend LaWa and you keep him, again, not going to cry about it. Right? That's cool. Then what this Gonzalez back of that solves that solution. And now you're more evenly with the splits and stuff. And you're like, okay, you can do it. You kept LaW and you saw that. Good job. But again, like if they decide to let LaWa, I would be okay with that. I can make sense of it. Nick Gonzalez goes a second. He's better. But again, if you're doing that, then you also have to capitalize again. This is where the parts miss out often. They do that part. But they don't do the others thing, right? Like, yeah, we let LaWa. Okay. I can understand that. But we did nothing to address corner outfield or third base. You know, they, well, we have

1:07:23Jericho. Right. I know. That's why I said you go out there and do this third base. So again, that's just where I'm at. If they let LaWa, I'm okay with it. But I think the reason I am too is because I would rather them go out there and get the brain allow of corner outbuilders. Go out there and get that guy, right? Who's also maybe right handed, who balances things out a little bit more. Go in the outfield because I think that also makes not only you making Gonzalez better at second, you're also making over her better because not in the outfield as much, right? You're making other guys. You're putting them in better situations. Brian Reynolds gets more days off because he goes to the DH. That's why I like that move. Okay. Anywho. Yeah. I think for me, from a position player standpoint, my priority is you've got at least a dress third base for one year. You got to bring Brandon LaWa back. And I do like the idea of a right handed hitting

1:08:23outfielder. But I think you can, I think you can acquire that in some other way. Oh, good. Yeah. We were going to talk about pitching too, but I feel like we've talked too long about this. We'll save pitching for next week. That's far about that. When we hear the, I'm not going to, I'm not going to joke about it. Yeah. So we've got a, we've got what three starting pitchers currently that are healthy. We're running a three man rotation, a 11 man bull pen, two bull pen games every time through the rotation right now. That's where that's where we're currently at. But I'll, I mean, hey, I'll say this, the bull pen games tend to work as much as I hate them. They tend to usually work. So if they need them to get through these final 12 games, you know, whatever,

1:09:27um, we don't even have, I have no idea what this, this coming series even looks like from a pitching standpoint. Pires don't have a starter name for Tuesday. Jared Jones is going on Wednesday and TBD on Thursday. Yep. They face Jacob Mizorowski, TBD versus Jacob Mizorowski. Jared Jones versus Logan Henderson and TBD versus Dustin May for, for this upcoming Milwaukee series. Um, you, uh, uh, a fandal, by the way, Denardo has updated their, uh, their win total for the pirates. It is now over under 80 and a half wins. So you can, you can bet on if the pirates actually had just updated 81 and a half is the overrunner. So the pirates are plus 140 to win 81 and a half games.

1:10:33So if you think that's going to go over 500, $100 bet pace you 140 if they finish with 82 wins. Yeah, I think that moved up two games last week, right? What's it? 79 and a half still. It was, it was 79 and a half before. So they keep winning and the number keeps going up. I'll say this my preseason over 74 and a half wins bet. That hit yesterday. That was a big game for me. Yeah. Win number 75. So that was, yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Um, I appreciate it. But yeah, 74 and a half that hit yesterday. Big day for the over 74 and a half guys. That was easy money. I was sweating it a little bit during that turn that slide. I was like, oh, man, when they were when they lost what like 12 of 14, I was like, this continues to happen. I was like, I thought that I thought that was easy money and

1:11:35I mean, it's still easy. Yeah. But yeah, so there's that in what 12 more games now. 12 more games. There's 75 and 75. If they continue doing what they've been doing, which is two out of three, right? That's eight and four, the rest of the way. 83 and 79. This kind of what they've been pacing to do in the last month or so. Yeah. And I mean, TBD going 40% of those starts. It's going good. TBD is going to shove. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, we'll see we'll see how they do here. I mean, Milwaukee. I don't know. I guess Milwaukee's got seating to play for still. But got to imagine they're kind of going to take it a little bit easy as they ramp up for the postseason. Maybe you know what we can do? We can we can bump Mizorowski's ERA over two.

1:12:37It's sitting at 1.95 right now. That should be the goal. Like in this Mizorowski game. Get his ERA over two. Jim's like 500 means nothing. But if Mizorowski's ERA is two. Let's get it over two days. Yeah. That's what's the spump it over two. That's four. All anyway. Yeah. Yeah. There's that. So hey, you know, the power season has been essentially over a bit of time. I mean, I think we can act really, really stand up over this one of time. Let's just go out there and still have some fun. Have some good baseball. There's still 12 games left. This team has certainly been interesting. They'll continue. I'm sure to be interesting. And then we have the offseason coming. Like I said, one more one more show of Buckebrut actually in season. The second one coming is going to be the day after it's all over. That's wild to me. I mean, it is. It is essentially October.

1:13:41Yeah. That is that is kind of crazy. And really, we probably, I don't know if we'll hear something on the fate of the front office by that second day. I know last year we we learned. Hey, the plan was to retain everybody. And that was like the last week of the season. When we found that out. So who knows if they do that again or if they kind of do the little double fake like they did in 2019 where it was like, no, Huntington is coming back and I was like, I wait, never mind. No, he's not. But we made him find that out relatively soon too. It is a weird part of golf cart. It's going to be a weird time for all of this because like with the upcoming lockout, it's just there's so much uncertainty going into this off season where like any sort of like regime change just it just kind of adds to the whole uncertainty piece. So I am interested to see how this off season plays out. It's going to be it's going to be

1:14:45interesting to me to see what they decide to do. Because I could see an argument either way. I can see an argument either way. I'm obviously on like, hey, this is you had seven years. Like, it's it's it's time. But if you want to say they made a big improvement this year, the team looks a lot better right now than it did last year or two years ago or three years ago. I could see that argument too. So yeah, I'll be interested to see what they do. It's going to be it's going to be a I don't know if it's going to be a fun off season because it's not I think that's going to happen. But I think it's not. I'll tell you right now. It's not. Yeah. I am not looking for this off season at all. At all. But I'm with you, man. You know, again, I'm I'm certainly on that side of things. But I mean, I was like, I think Cody and I were talking maybe last night two nights ago or something. And it's like even if Ben's retained, like this looks like a playoff team next year. Like it doesn't matter who's the GM. Like it looks like a pop team. But I'm with

1:15:49you too. It's like you've had seven years here's where you are. Calability has to mean something at some point. You can't just talk about it. Talk about it. It's all the players. And anyways, yeah, this off season. We're going to have some fun though. We're going to have some fun. We're going to have some fun. We're going to have some fun. We're going to have some fun, right? No, we have a lot. We have a lot actually a lot like planned and lined up crazy stuff. So stay with us. Stay with us. 12 more games in season. And then we get to talk about the other teams in the playoffs. And then nothing for probably. And again, if you can, click the donate link, whatever you can, whatever you can give where we're we're we're raising money for the Clemente Museum. So whatever you can donate today and then tomorrow during Clemente Day, hopefully we're celebrating a win on our post game show tomorrow. And I said, we'll we'll be we'll be matching donations total donations

1:16:52up to a thousand fifty dollars. Two ERA for the Clemente Museum. Let's do two ERA. Let's do it. We appreciate you guys. We love you guys. And of course, if you are donating, we really do appreciate that. Thank you. We're back tomorrow then with the post game show. If you haven't already, tune in to Alex's on feet. And we'll see you later. Bye bye. See you guys. All right, that wraps up this episode of North Shore 9. Thanks so much for tuning in. Whether you're listening on the podcast or catching us on YouTube, if you enjoyed the show, please give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. It really helps us grow. And if you're listening on the podcast, a quick review goes a long way and helping others find the show. Plus, be sure to tell a friend about us. There's always room for more here in the NS9 community. And for those looking to support us a little more, consider joining our Patreon. Become an MVP member and get exclusive perks while helping us continue to bring you more of the pirates content you love. Thanks again for all your support and let's go bucks.