Pitching Plans, Playoff Pushes, and CBA Clashes

0:00Meet the Red Bull Dragonberry Emergizer. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire? Try them all only at McDonald's. All right. Well, that's good to be back. After yesterday's off. Well, I wasn't an off day. We did Blue Jays talk. I forgot about that. It is Boyron Barker though. Back in the saddle on Sportsnet 590 Defant and Sportsnet. It's an off day for Barker's Blue Jays today. Hey. Oh, sorry. Where's my bottom? Sorry. I got both copies of your notes. I know how much you read them. Yeah, absolutely. Because your eyesight is bad. Thank you. Thanks. Our notes are great, but Kevin does sometimes always say that the notes are too small for him. You're right. Yeah. I just can't read them. Okay.

1:00I can't read them. Only one of us were doing a commercial for an eye. An eye dog. You're funny. You're funny. I'm getting them checked. I think it's funny. I think it's funny. Don't be that guy on the old video. Yeah. The older guy has better eyesight than you. It's just really close. It's like just saying as long as I got it at you know. A little distance. I'm good. You can tell spin, but you can't pick up later. That's it. Right on the hand. I'm out of the hand. Yeah. uh, Kirk Brandeos says the I've had a moment. Yeah, well, any other moving on it is well, you know, I'm good today. Oh, well, the James can't lose tonight. Oh, I don't care. He'd win night. Yeah, actually, that's not true. They can lose because a bunch of teams in and around them are playing tonight. And luckily catch those games on, uh, on sports and sports and at plus has the tigers and the Chicago white socks and cheering for the tigers right now. Uh, if you want the J's to do, gain that wild card spot, sports and that one has the red socks and the Rangers

2:00and the Rangers are the J's next opponent. The three game series that starts tomorrow in Arlington. Should we take a quick look at the wild cards? I'd love to Jeff that are, why don't we do that? Yeah, why don't you read it? Not all you're good. Go ahead. You read it. Ah, come on. Just read it. Where do you start here? While you know, do we get to the Yankees in the red socks? Hang on. You tell the folks, no, you tell the folks the white socks are 77 and 75. They currently hold down the third wild card. Then what do you say after that? Well, then you go down. You what do you say after that? Well, we'll go ahead. Tell us. No, you go. Yeah, the Rangers are 76 and 76. They're a game back of the Chicago white socks that your Toronto, blue J's are 76 and 77. They're a game and a half back. The Baltimore Orioles are 75 and 78. They're two and a half back after that. They're buddy cares. That's pretty much there. We are. So there you go. See, it's not that hard. I mean, it's not the fact that it's hard. It's just the fact that I don't want to do it. I'd rather you do it. Well, every now and then you got to, uh,

3:01step up. You got to shoulder load every. Oh, yeah. Jeff pass and David Samson join us. Jesse Rogers MLB reporter with ESPN. We'll take a look at the, uh, at the shy socks. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, yeah, it's what we got nine games left. Yep. And you made an interesting point before he came in the air. Hmm. Um, you were reading me the J's pitching plant for nine games. Yeah. And there's three days that they don't really have one. They don't have one. Yeah. No, no, no, you can throw a tray in there. He's going to get one of them. Probably one of them. I would think against Bob. Yeah. Yeah. So if you, so if you got CS on Friday, what you do, uh, you got Soriano on Saturday, what you do, uh, you would have max. Those are the big three, right? Max would be the second game against the Orioles. Right. And then how do you fill in the blanks after that, right? That, that's kind of where it gets a little all over the place. You know, CS would get the, the last game against the Orioles. So that's going to take one of those, uh, Soriano, because of the off day,

4:03the 24th will be working on five days rest. He'll, he'll get the, uh, he'll get the first game against the Reds at home, which is a big deal, right? And then Max will get the last game of the season. So you're trying to fill in the blanks with all the other games, right? So you got that, uh, the three games that you were talking about the last game against Texas. That's on Sunday. They don't really have a starter or who they're going to throw the first game against the Orioles. So that's back to back days. Now again, you're fitting in trade, uh, Hazel and Shai reported yesterday that Bieber, uh, will be throwing off the mound either tomorrow or the next day. He wants to be a part of one of those three, right? Whichever one of those three is, however you'd want to use him after he throws his side session off the mound. So you're figuring you're trying to fill in the blanks there. So it'll be a collection of those three games of either trade, Bieber, uh, Eric Eddie miles and in bullpen, like you're, you're trying to mix and match. So you know, you, you kind of take it of where's the, the big two and then you add

5:05Max and of course, the whole, the whole, the whole key to that is making sure that one of cease, sorry, I know and max, you know, that they don't only make it out of three innings like you, I mean, that, I mean, there's not really any way you can plant for that. You know, obviously, hoping and you know, that's what I'm saying though, if, if one of those, the pressure's on those guys to give you innings, right? I would think C, especially with where the velocities at, you know, just the, uh, kind of the, the little unknown around just how it's going to look when he takes the mound. I think that's obviously you can get through it because of the secondary stuff and, and you know, being a little bit more unpredictable now and can lean on some slower stuff to make the velocity that much better. We had Przysky on a couple of days ago and he was saying when I asked him about one, the velocity goes down, what do you ask from a guy like that? He said just, you know, throw enough, called strike with the fastball to make the secondary stuff that much better. And I don't think with what we've seen in the past from Dylan, the last four or five starts, that's kind of what he's trying to do. And it does seem like Jeff DeMori throws the fastball, the, the, you know, does uptick

6:08a little, which would allow him to get a few more swing and misses on the elevated velocity. I think without with the three, he's kind of the unknown with just the expectations, how deep he want him to go into a game. Is it just a win day now? You know, you used to be that right when he would take the mound, you're winning. Like he's good enough now that you got a good chance that you might see a no hitter. Now there's some boy. Hopefully gets off to a good start. Hopefully he's not staring at the scoreboard a lot. Hopefully he's not over throwing. Hopefully this spins good. It's competitive. It's a tough take. Hopefully the change ups good to a lefty. We did see him throw it to a righty. So there are some things there that you're, you know, your fingers crossed. And but I would think with those three guys, you're hoping that you got a chance after that. That's the end though. And especially what the offense is not giving you. There's some things there that, you know, just are shining a light on boy. You know, the situational execution needs to be a lot better, right?

7:08The, you know, the, the lead off walk. How do you get into second to make it easier for the next guy? I, you know, lead off double. How do you move him? The third will less than two outs runner on third will less than two outs. How do you get him in? I just think those things have to be on point not some of the time all the time. You know, there, it's not worth thinking about them. Jeff going six and three or five and four. It's seven and two eight and one. That's, that's heavy lifting. Yeah. We also should mention that the Rangers are actually even with the Astros in the American League West, he used to know owns the wild card right now. So it's entirely possible that the Astros end up falling into that wild card. Yeah. Into that wild card picture. Interesting development last night for the Rangers ahead of the J series. Don't know what to make of it. But Nathan Yvallady came on in relief. Now he's been working his way back from an elbow injury that kept him out for five weeks. He's made two relief appearances since September 12th.

8:09So on September 12th and September 16th and Yvallady pitched four innings last night against the Boston Red Sox. And eventually the Red Sox went on to win. I'm sorry, the Rangers went on to win seven and three, seven to three. So that's interesting with the J series coming up. I wonder if because I was sitting there thinking, okay, you've probably missed a Yvallady start, which is good if you're the blue jays. But now I wonder, you're probably, while we don't know, I've skipped shoe maker, the Rangers manager obviously hasn't tipped his hand. He said, basically, it's says far as I'm concerned, it's all hands on deck. Huh. And he also pointed out the part of the issue was Mackenzie Gore lasted just four innings. He had muscle spasms. Yeah. So, you know, the Jays are there. There's a certain amount of flux if you are, if you are the Texas Rangers as well. Yeah, I think if you, if you kind of do the math with the Grom, it's, you know, you, you would probably think that you might get him last game of that series,

9:12Cal Quantro. You could say he's have a hand. He's been really, really good this year. That's going to be heavy lifting a lot of it for the Jays. It just puts a lot more pressure on the things I mentioned and the, and the pitching staff for the blue Jays rocker. I'm sure he'll have something to do with, you know, one of those starts out of the three days, just going to be kind of that sort of the way they've been winning up until this point. Jeff is the, the rotation and the pitching staff as the whole has to be almost perfect. I just, that's just kind of where we're at. You're holding them three or fewer. I, that, that's where it's at. And, and sort of everybody else right in the, in the lineup, right? You've, you've had Bateman with the 46 hits in the 34 games, 14 multi hit games. You've had Okamoto with the 33 homers 88 RBI's six homers in his last 15 games. Kirkki, nine RBI's his last nine games. And then everybody else like the Vlad, he won for 10 to RBI's in three games, Springer won RBI in three games. Ernie, what is he? A buck eight in his last 15. He's got two extra bass hits his last 22 games of Valance,

10:12the well, the one he does fill in the blanks five extra bass hits in his last 40 games. Uh, you know, Andre Seminas has the leg entry like, you know, and then it's just the cast the characters of trying the situational execution part of it. That's not going to be the easiest thing. It's a lot of fun. I mean, it's to even say that we were going to have this conversation when they were 10 under is. Yeah, for, for just a bigger further to that point, by the way, just looking at the, uh, the Texas Rangers game notes for tonight's game against the red socks. They've listed all three games against the J's as TBA. Yeah. So, um, Tyler Alexander's pitch and tonight. But as I said, you, you would, I mean, I don't know where to go from there. You, you see, definitely see, I would think to Grom in the final game and you'll probably see you Volody. They may just use you Volody. I don't even know if they want him to start. Yeah, the four A and he's coming off the, the injury. Well, no, he came in out of the bullpen. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's kind of like a Spencer Miles. You know, it's that's kind of, uh, yeah, I think his role, you know, the Cal Quantral start.

11:14I mean, I'm sure you'll have a little something to do with that. You know, it's almost to the point where you're just not even worrying about who they're facing. Yeah. It's just, it's just kind of, can you piece it together, can Dylan see some match the guy whoever that is, you know, and, and keep the other team from scoring along enough to the J's either put it up pressure, put it up balls and play that somebody will mess something up. That's the way they score runs or it's a blue pin a bomb thing. And, and you score enough to turn it over to the bullpen, who's been really good with the lead. That's fingers crossed on how you're winning these games. And I got to say this if you are a J's fan, there could be worse things than having the Astros fall into the wild cards by because you do own the tiebreaker against the Astros. Seven and two, Jeff's heavy lifting. You think right now the J's in your heart of hearts could go seven and two in the next nine? No. You think they have to? Got that feel to it. I mean, who I don't know who knows that this, this American league. I'm still thinking, I'm still thinking 82 wins gets you in. So I think six wins is good enough. Yeah. Six and three.

12:15What? Which is what the offense got to and I mean, it's your easiest way to look at is you split the these next six games and then you sweep the red. Ideally, you want to take four the next six. I mean, ideally, you want to win five the next. Once the last time the J swept the thing. The ace. Been a while. I mean, I have to go back and look at that. But it's far between right. I mean, I'm thinking, you know, best case scenario is you basically win two games. You you've got to me. You got to win two games in each of the next series. I think I think 82 gets you in. That's probably more realistic, but man, you know, the way John was talking, the question he was being asked about the, you know, you win one, you want to win nine of those in a row. Like it's not. Not when he gives the J's 85, 85. Yeah. I mean, that's a shoe in right? But I mean, and it might make the last couple of games not matter. But you're not. I'm with you. I'm not disagreeing with you, but it's. And I just driven you to win seven. That would mean somebody in that lineup that I just mentioned.

13:15And then I do anything has to do something. That's what I think it means that you've got to for you to win seven. Perfect. I yeah, I just don't I think we have to stop with somebody in the lineup. It's got to do something because it just hasn't happened. Like because whenever we say somebody in the lineup, it's got to do something. We're talking about flat. Yeah. We'll know. And I think spring or two you can throw in there. Yeah. And that's I just, I mean, poor old George can barely move. I'm it's going to have to be somebody else. It's going to have to be curky. And I don't think I mean, I mean, I don't know if that's enough. Yeah, I just don't know about the, you know, if you're realistic about trying, even if you think six and three, can you do that with just pitching? I know going on the road for six games. I you go four and two against the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles. Just pitching. I mean, now the Orioles, you're not going to see, okay, your Kyle Bradish is down with the for the Orioles. So, you know, you're not going to get you're not going to get Kyle Bradish. I'm just looking.

14:16Yeah. No, I've already talked about the Rangers. I just, I. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't see them winning. I don't see them. I don't see any world where they win 90. You know what would he know? You know what would I think six and three is about the best you can hope for. Yeah, like right now you need, with all the right now, you're not going to win your way into the wild. Why would I have right now? You need somebody to, you need either Houston, Texas. Or the Chicago White Sox to collapse. You know what would help is if Dylan sees him out throwing 98. I got to help a little. Yeah, but I don't, I don't help me. I'm not counting. Make me feel a little bit better. I'm not counting on that. I know, but it'd be nice. I'm not counting that. I'm probably with you, but. And um, yeah, so there you go. That is a three game series against the Ranger starting to more night eight ten Eastern. Be the first pitch. Well, what? I don't know. That's a little late for you. I could have been a little later. What are you talking about?

15:19Maybe it'll rain. That does better. No, it does. Oh, it does. It might. Yeah, we all see got in your mind because I know you did some research. No, I did not. Just the pitching. Just the pitching. I do. You know, you're trying to figure out what gives you a better chance to go six and three seven and two eight and one. I mean, again, I'm, I'm shooting for the moon here. It's probably not going to happen. But if you think about how everybody's lined up and you know, how you're going to figure out the three games that really don't have a pitcher for there's some unknowns around tray. If Bieber does come back and you want to use him, what can he give you? What can you expect from him? Like there's, you know, just look at what John's going to have to go through to boy, some of them. Jay's talks that we're going to have to have with how he's going to have to use this all. There it is, Jeffrey. Like, just how he's going to have to use his pen. Four little, four, four little john's going to be making five decisions a night. And people are going to be, I mean, it's going to be a second. How come he can't throw it? He's throwing 82. That's like, it's going to be a second. Yes, there's picnics for the next week.

16:20Every time John, John plays bullpen jeopardy. Bullpen is pretty good. It has been really good. Well, it's one of the main reasons why they're in this thing. I would argue it's, I would argue it's the only reason they're in it right now. A couple of dudes in that rotation been really good. They've given them some links enough that. But yeah, I think ninth inning backwards. There's about three dudes down there that have been giving you everything they got. And then there's the flu hardies and the fishers of the world who have, you know, exceeded expectations. I think this year was especially the way they look last year. And there was some unknown. Can they do it again? Like, it's been a nice little story down there, especially again, boy. You know, if there's anything of you can just throw anybody that ninth inning, you can throw that in the garbage. Do we need, by the way, to absolutely to celebrate the fact that Dodgers, when they're fifth straight in a West title, 13th and 14 years, West is, that's the central American league. So not really. Okay. No, it will be funny that they win that thing and can still finish, you know, somewhere

17:21down there where they have to play a few more games in the playoffs. I don't know what the record is that and dug into that because I was trying to dig into the pitching staff. This is Jason right now. Oh, geez. They, if they have to play the wild card round, they are not winning it. No, they're going out. Here's stuff, males. Who, who would they have to play the pod raise or somebody? Doesn't come on. If it's the pod raise, they're definitely a, wow, definitely. The pod raise never win them games. They're gone. Wow. Well, I mean, they're gone. I don't know if that's a hot take or not. It's more in the realm of you just don't have anything to say about that and you wanted to go on that end. No, I, yeah, I don't see it. I don't see that ahead. I think it's going to draw out. I think it's, it's kind of got that brewer Dodger head to head thing and the little engine that could, you know, takes it deeper and has plays a complete series. And I think that might be where it shows up. I, you know, it's just that, that short sample size of, you know, my best to get your best.

18:27I'm not sure the National League is a whole matchup what the Dodgers going to throw at them. I think they can't, but in a long six or seven game series, I think that for me anyways, where the brewers can show up and beat the Dodgers. So I'm not going to agree with you on that part of it, but I do think it's fun that we're talking about somebody other than the Dodgers that can win this thing. I won't be shocked if the braze wanted or the brewers wanted. Maybe the brewers a little bit because kind of like the, the raise, but kind of what makes it fun talking about baseball this time of the year. Yeah. What else do we need to touch based on from last night? Aaron judge left the game with the lower leg issue. Yeah. In the 13th inning last night. You know, that'll obviously raise the question whether or not the, the Yankees brought him back too soon. I, I don't tend to, I don't tend to necessarily. I just, you know, one of the, one of the things I, I was reading a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if it was Ken Rose and thought it definitely was on the athletic, but they

19:32were speaking to somebody. It might have even just been like a baseball source, but they were talking about Aaron judge. And one of the points that was being made was one of the issues with Aaron judges because he is so big. Sure. Like just physically big unicorn. There are, you know, it's, sometimes those guys have a harder time recovering from injuries because they're so big and the stuff that he does overcompensate and for something too, right? You put more pressure on something else, you body just can't take that. He's taking a lot of swings in his career too, which is Jason Stark. Thank you. Of course, of course, of course, of course, of course, of course, of you one of our guests. Absolutely. But no, it was it. Yeah, it's, it's an interesting point about Aaron judge. A big man. Yeah. I just wonder if he's not at 100% can they, can they, can they win the American League? You know, it's almost with him too, you know, can, can rice do the things he's done in the regular season in the playoffs?

20:32Can that pitching staff as a whole, including the bull pin kind of carried the Yankees, which is what we normally don't see them do? And kind of hide what they don't do well defensively. Funny. I was watching the, I was watching the race game this afternoon, a bit of the race game and B.A. and, and, and Dwayne stats were doing the game. And it was funny hearing them talk about the race pitching plans and how Kevin Cash had talked before the game about well, now we got to keep our guys sharp. We got to figure out a way to keep our guys sharp because we're going to, you know, you're going to have the buying all that. And it was kind of, kind of laughing about the comparison that situation, you know, to what John Schneider's in. And then I thought that might be one thing we're kind of sleeping on with the raise a bit. They're going to be 100% healthy. Yeah. And they're going to have all their arms. I mean, they're, they're going to have them, I mean, because that, they're going to have them lined up and ready and ready to go. Like that may be a thing when you're, when you're wondering how whether or not the race should be favored.

21:34Having that team, giving them the freedom to basically line up their pitching exactly the way they want to do it. Over Jackie. Wow. That's what they're going to do. I see. I don't think, no, I don't think they, there's a blueprint there. They've done that before, which is a good thing, right? Yeah. You can't teach experience kind of thing. Yeah, they have to be the front right. They have the best record in American League like they, they, they, but I think if you see, if you see them get beat, the playoffs, it's not going to be a surprise to me. And that's, that's for me anyway. It might be for me this year because they've been in first place for so long. Yeah, I think for a lot of that, it has to do because the Yankees have, you know, and I think also the American League as a whole, she's been really, really bad. It was to be fair about it. So, yeah, I'm not, I'm not taking anything away from them. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a feather and their cat to be able to do that. But I just, I think the American League is a host, it's up for grabs. And, but I do think they're going to be a handful going into that place too. It's not going to be the easiest place to play that time of the year. You know, they're just dealing with the roof and, you know, the pitching staff that they have and, and Camon Arrow.

22:35Am I, he might be judge 2.0? You know, I do think he's that right. He's taken over for judge. I do believe going forward. He is the judge of the American League. Now, for me anyway, I mean, it's not even close right now. He is the guy that can drop 60 on you. Easy. And he's getting better, which is scary for the American League. So, I kind of like that. I do want to give Carlos Fabulous the, the third-based coach for the Blue Jays, some, some love. Yesterday, you know, I, I think we forget about him. And while we forget about him, he's really good at it. When the last time he, he got a guy thrown out at home and everybody yelled and screamed about it. The, the tag up from Okamoto on the short fly to center. Now, I understand what the lineup for the Jays is not doing. Okamoto is not a fast runner. He's not a great base runner. You got to really be in tune and yelling at a guy and, and really just like encouraging him to let's step it up. Let's speed it up. You're going right here like, you got to know that and Ernie's going for first on the year done the, done the first baseline. That's a big deal.

23:36Like I've been in that spot where Ernie obviously has been going through it and, and all of those, but you got to be really. Boy stress in certain situations for him to be able to do that. So I wanted to give him love. We never ever talk about him. You don't know why it is. Cause he's really good at it. Third base coaches are like umpires. Yeah. You know, you'd rather not talk about the ones you don't see. Absolutely. So I wanted to give him love for that. He's, and he's a really good dude. He's always prepared. I like that. He's always got some good conversation every time I have a conversation with him. And I just wanted to give him some love cause he's aren't here. He's going to have good conversations. That's a good. Thank you for teaming that up Kevin. Speaking of good conversations, Jeff pass and the SPN's MLB insider and host of sources tell Jeff pass and we'll join us next. It's Valar and Barker on Sportsnet 590 to fan and Sportsnet. Hey, it's Matt Mark Hazing and I'm Mike Fuda. We're discussing the top stories of the day across the NHL and the hockey world week days at noon. It's the fan hockey show on Sportsnet 590 to fan and wherever you get your podcasts.

24:39All right. Welcome back to Blair and Barker on Sportsnet 590 to fan and Sportsnet the Jays are off today for opening a three game series in Texas. The hot in Texas. It's all real hot. It's always hot. Yeah. Donut grease hot. Huh? Donut grease hot. Donut grease hot. Yeah. Hot or donut grease. I have no idea what that means. Measier's really hot. Okay. It was the saying we used to say when we played baseball all the time and during the day, day games, you ever felt donut grease? No, but I heard I heard it. Okay. Just wondering. Nice to ride. Jeff. There is baseball though in the network tonight. Kansas City in Houston, seven o'clock on Sportsnet plus the Tigers and the Chicago White and the White socks and on Sportsnet one Boston in Texas. So as we said, right now, Texas is in the wildcard picture.

25:44Houston could be in the wildcard picture. I mean, there's a chance folks that the Astros and Rangers and White socks and guardians keep flipping back and forth. Although my. God tells me that. Guardian's are. Probably going to. They're going to realize it's September and they got a pretty good way of doing it. They really do. Again, tomorrow night eight, 10 is the first pitches. The J's are in early 10. Let's bring in Jeff pass and he is ESPN's MLB insider. He's host of sources tell Jeff pass and how you doing? Hey, buddy. How are you? We're doing well. Hey, on your most recent, the most recent addition to your podcast, you invited. I love this. You invited all 30 MLB owners on your show. I'm going to invite the. The talk and. And. And. I. None did, which you know, they're used to. I don't know what they're still is. I mean, I have bud ceiling used to famously threaten million dollar fines. I think for owners to spoke about labor.

26:45I don't even know if anybody ever really. If anybody ever really, really dug into that. But I did want to ask you this. And we'll talk about the playoff race because obviously that's what folks are. And we're going to talk about the playoff race. And we're going to talk about the playoff race. But Jeff, if let's just say it's the raised and the brewers in the world series. Like, is that. And I know people are going to say, well, boy, that, you know, that shoots down one of the owners, you know, selling points, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. This really make a difference in the grand scheme of things in terms of negotiating. No, I don't. I think the way that major league baseball looks at this guys is that one year. Does not wash away what it feels like is a multiple decade long march towards the position that we're in right now. Is that reasonable? Is that fair? So much of this, I think, depends on what one's perspective of competitive balance is.

27:45If you're someone who just looks at championships and world series wins. Yeah, it's kind of undeniable that only large market teams over the last decade have won. I can't argue with that. I think the argument that I would make is that winning a championship is not necessarily indicative of where leagues competitive balance is to me, it's about opportunity to me, it's about the ability to go out there and compete in the more relevance, I think, just to the argument in this situation, regular season where you've got 162 games and where teams can separate themselves over the long haul rather than go on a month long heater. But the problem with that argument is it runs into the what's the whole point of these games. It's to win a championship as great as last year was for the Toronto Blue Jays.

28:48The fact that they don't have a banner in a ring makes that a little bit more hollow. And so I like use the thing I get everyone's argument here about competitive balance. I think they're all generally pretty reasonable and they're all fair and they're all understandable. To me, as we continue this conversation, the question becomes in trying to solve this, is it worth losing games and is it worth losing other things that just that that's what comes with a potential loss? I personally don't think there's anything at this point worth losing a lot over, but you know, here we are two months away from two and a half months away from the lockout and I don't know, I don't have any idea guys when it's going to end. Yeah, it's interesting hearing you hearing you say that because you know, I was thinking back to a couple of other sort of

29:53things and stoppages that I covered and you know, I kind of always had a pretty good sense like put it this way, even 93, the end of the, or sorry, the end of the 94 season, the way it ended completely shut down, surprised me initially and then the more I thought about it and the more I spoke to some players, granted they were players around the expo's and the more I realized, okay, this probably shouldn't be as big a shock to me as it was, but other times I've had a pretty good handle and I just don't know about this one. And you know, I think you, you really got me thinking a month ago when you introduced the idea that, you know, the president may get involved in me, he likes wins and yeah, I just, I just, I don't know if that, if that wrinkle is introduced, I don't know how that ends. I just don't that may be why the why owners and why rob nathrid why they're just so almost glib about the salary cap.

30:55Yeah, and you know, when I invited them on, I didn't expect anyone to say yes, I was hopeful they would I, you know, there, there've been people at the league who are unhappy with the way that I framed it and presented it and that it was kind of cynical. I think it would be cynical not to think that someone wants to talk about this because the truth is guys MLB is the one that is looking for drastic change. You know, they'll go out and tout where the game is these days and how you know the game is not been in a better place in a long time and they'll give manifold reasons for that, but then when it comes down to economics is like all of a sudden, no, we want to completely change things. I personally think if you are suggesting drastic change that the burden is on you to make the argument for and the burden is on you to answer the questions about it and look if they are compelling reasons and certainly salary caps have, I think majority support among fans, no question about it.

32:16But I also think fans are sold this idea that parity that competitive balance is directly caused by salary caps rather than correlated by it. What I wanted to do was to ask the owners, essentially one question, what can be achieved through a salary cap that can't be achieved through other means through some kind of compromise that's more like the current system, but the current system with twist and with amendments and with adulterations and the current system upgraded. I still get to hear the answer to that from anybody on that side. Yeah, I've always been kind of interested in what would happen. Sorry Kevin, I'll know you guys will I will I would have always been kind of interested in what would happen if there was some form of restricted free agency where you could become a free agent earlier. If the owners were to offer the players the possibility of free agency earlier, you know, with the right to match, I mean, I know they they haven't in the NHL. I know a lot of times people just roll their eyes because quite often, you know, the penalty for for reaching out to somebody else's RFA is a loss of a lot of draft picks.

33:34But I don't know if that if that couldn't necessarily be a bit of a sweetener for the players like I'm just I'm just spitballing here, but it's something I've always thought about right now. Jeff MLB's proposal right now offers free agency earlier for anybody who's 30 and under or excuse me 30 and over so if you've reached five years of service at free age, if you reach five years of service by the time you're 30 years old, you are a free agent under MLB's proposal. And the you know, the way that the union is addressing this is that at the end of the day, the players are still receiving the same amount just being distributed a little bit differently. But I think it is a meaningful thing for almost half the guys who eventually reach free agency they under MLB's plan they would have reached the year earlier and that's a compelling thing.

34:36So there, you know, there are a lot of pieces of MLB's proposal that in a vacuum actually would not be bad for players and would be beneficial. But they all come with the ultimate restriction, the restriction of the ability to earn what a free market that has existed for the entirety of major league baseballs, you know, labor relations, era. That goes away and that's just not something at this point, I think that the players are willing to give up on. Yeah, I'm hoping to that if they have another world series like the head last year momentum is a real thing going into the offseason and maybe that can speed up things, but again, you know, I'm a realist, it's all about money and when you got a bunch of rich people all pulling in different directions, it's going to go the way it needs to go. Jeff, I'll do one ask about the blue jays, the third wild card spot, the American league, how do you see all this playing out the guardians, the Astros, the white socks, like there's just a bunch of teams that are kind of all the same all fighting for, you know, a division win a third wild card spot, how do you see all this plan out.

35:51This is like you asking me to go to a thrift store and pick out like a diamond, okay, I mean, you know, we're just here's the thing when it's the American league you're just dealing with a bunch of junk, a bunch of mediocrity and I the reality is I wish I could tell you that these are the teams that are going to emerge. I don't know because they've all stunk at points this season, I don't know when they're going to sink again, but inevitably at least a couple of them are going to sink down the stretch because that's kind of who they've been all year long, I think looking at the schedules and I know that those aren't always indicative of the way that teams are going to play because especially with themes that have had bad years like Kansas City and Colorado. They're going to want to at least walk off on a good note and feel like they spoiled it for someone, but on schedules alone, I think the two central teams between the schedules and the record advantages they have right now, the guardians and or the white socks are the favorites for that final wild card spot, but I'm not just counting the chase by any means it's not like they have a difficult schedule down the stretch, you know, both more.

37:14Since I know they face Jacob the Grom who's been ridiculous lately and I know like looking at at the blue jays probable pitchers it's very interesting what's. Backshares are dillities so they sorry on out and like a shrug emoji and I get that trade sandwiches going to be in there and I get that sped through our getty's going to be somewhere in there, but one would think that if you have 10 games left in the season, you can do a little better than an emoji but that that's the kind of year it's been like for the blue jays at this point yeah okay about the mission the white socks not you know everything you just said there I think I agree with with the white socks with where they've been all year. Kind of taking the step forward that nobody thought they could they got three does with at least 30 homers, which is the big deal. I mean, I guess if you watch them for the most part they've been a fun team to watch said it'll make it how will we talk about the white socks. I think that they choked away a pretty big lead like that that they that they were in position to two years after they lost a record number of games be a playoff team, which is an incredible turnaround, but that they blew the opportunity on account of.

38:32A starting pitching group that just absolutely cratered at the end and yet I think if you're a white socks fan whatever the disillusionment to disappointment is over the end of the season it's at least mitigated some by the fact that a majority of these guys are quite young and that they are going to be back and that they're going to be adding rock chalazki the number one overall pick to it and they've got Caleb Bonimer another infielders. Scott 30 plus homers in the minor league this year and that there's just you know, hey, can Smith is going to transition to the rotation and should be a force there at some point like the white socks have things lined up pretty good going forward and so however disappointing this year could be and it could be quite disappointing. At least you got the theater chef I'm wondering you wrote a pointed out on on actually other day that the three best teams in the Yale have been the raise Yankees and red socks, but because of the seating that rewards division winners only one of them can make it to the ALCS the winner of the Yankees socks will play the raise in the division series now I know that the perfect playoff format isn't always isn't always available.

39:51I always I have a difficult time sometimes reacting to just because stuff just kind of happens the way it happens right there's a year where you get stuff like this happening other years the playoff format seems to make seems to make more sense, but you think there's any any thought here and in perhaps just I don't know receding or giving I'm trying to figure out how you avoid a situation like this. Yeah, the only way to do it is to receive well okay I take it back you can receive so during for example the the postseason in every round the highest he could play the lowest and I suppose that's that's reasonable that wouldn't necessarily solve this year what the issue is I think you could just see by record, but at that point I think that's the best way to do it.

40:51So at that point you're essentially saying winning a division doesn't have any tangible or meaningful benefits right aside from maybe that if you're in a really bad division you could get in with a worse record than a team that's you know but that's that's just so the outcome of that is so rare. It's just it's tough because I do think that the J's the Yankees that excuse me to raise the Yankees the messed up the the continent there the raise the Yankees in the red socks with three best teams in the American League this year and I know I would much rather I would much rather see the match up in the ALCS between two of those teams to get you what you're going to do. I think that's why I think they're going to be a way into a world series than otherwise, but I you know I think situations like this ultimately they don't come up all that often I gotta do a study on this and see just how often some of the best teams in the league are put in this position because

42:09been. Yeah, it probably is something that needs to change. Yeah, I like Yankees Red Sox. Anytime they can play against each other, boy, I love that. I mean, two teams, two organizations. Yeah, but you rather have them in the five or seven, sorry, five game series. I mean, it whenever I can get it, the urgency. But I do want to ask you because you know, Judge went down with that, yeah, the rib thing. Now he's got the leg thing. And I saw Caminar of playing third base today for the, for the race. And it started making me think. And I said this Jeff forward on the show. He is the, he is the judge 2.0 going forward, right? He is the heir apparent to judge just being, he's the next guy that can hit 65 armors, right? Yeah, but he's a junior cabinet. It's not as good a hitter as Aaron Judge. No, he can't be that. No, no, I don't. I've been Aaron Judge is a generationally good hitter. Yeah. Aaron Judges numbers when you stack them up against his contemporaries

43:10he dwarfs them and against great legends of New York Yankees history, those are the kind like judges putting up. Like Mickey Nathal type numbers. I think if you go and look at them between the on base percentage and otherwise right now junior Caminar is not the best hitter in the American league. He's 60 points behind Jordan Alvarez and not base percentage. 60 points behind him in slugging percentage. And this is not my way of lagging junior Caminar by any means because I think he's incredible. And I think that there's a reasonable case to be made for him to be the American league MVP this year. And yes, I suppose he is young enough to mature into like he's doing at this age what he's doing. I think Aaron Judge was still in the minor leagues. So maybe I should put a ceiling on junior Caminar. He does have a sub 20% strike out rate. He has increased his law for a significantly.

44:15So yeah, I just think Aaron Judge has had the kinds of years like multiple 10 wins seasons that are so, so rare. I don't want to put that on anyone. I think what junior Caminar has that Aaron Judge's doesn't is personality and flavor. And you know 42nd trots on walk off a run. And it's a it to me it's a different type of player, but it's the same. I think the reason you're comparing them is because he feels like an anchor. Yeah, feels like somebody around whom you build. And and to me, it's a really interesting litmus test. If a salary cap is not put in place, well, the Tampa Bay Ray signed junior Caminar to the enormous mega extension that he deserves. And I don't know. I mean, if there's a max contract in place,

45:15you know, damn, well, junior Caminar, I was going to get it. But if there's not, will they be willing to pay after what happened with Wander Franco and how they got sort of nailed on that one tough to say. And I know you guys probably have to go right now. So if I may just jump in here and say to look on my child's face during this car ride as I've picked him up from school, listening to a redneck and a Canadian talk to each other has been absolutely correct. You're welcome. I'm glad we could entertain him. Yes. Glad we can entertain him. Yeah. Thanks for your guys. Thank your son as well. Be well. You're the best, buddy. Say it. They've asked Luke. Thank you. Be well. That's a good as Jeff. He has pnzmlb insider. And host of the sources tell Jeff pass. Yeah. I guess it does sound well. I say I don't get the whole Canadian thing to American ears. No, no. But anyhow, I don't

46:16know. Well, yeah, you've lived here long enough. I think I talked to a normal. What was it that was it was it Daniel Norris? We had on or who was it? We had on and he was from Tennessee. No, he's from Virginia. He's from Virginia as well. There's something Gibi made the law. I made a comment to Gibi above. That's funny. And Gibi said that's because he's from the other side of the mountain. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Okay. I think it's because the one guy sounded like he was basically reciting Shakespeare. And you know, okay. Anyhow. That's fine. No, yeah. Junior Caminar will be a test for the raised new ownership because, you know, the new ballpark being planned. You know, yeah, they got burned by Wander Franco, but that was the different ownership group. My guy. Yeah. I think he's oh, what? I mean, if he doesn't people be standing line to sign that dude, including the jays. If you don't, you're crazy. He's sticking

47:20right in the middle of your you're talking about your cleanup, Peter. Oh boy. And he, I, you know, I don't know the exact age, but he's he's a lesson 25. I think he's less than 25. I was just looking at it. Yeah. Yeah. Would you? He's he is must watch. Yeah. And what he does don't grow on trees. You got to pay what you got to pay. He is. Yeah. He is 23. There it is. And he will turn. So he will start next season. He'll still be 23. He doesn't turn 24 till July 5th next season. Yeah. I think the American ladies in good shape with him, Bobby Wichina, I think there's you know, Bobby Wichina is another one of them guys who can do it all right. The high average, the driving and runs, but extra bass, the stolen bass is like, there's, you know, there's some days the American league boy that can carry it. Yeah, but the problem is man, so many guys end up leaving the American league for the national league. Well, I mean, you know, but yeah, somebody will end up somebody will end up paying a big money and and and pass it's right. He is a show too. If you want to be, if you want to be entertained, yeah, in addition to watching good

48:24baseball and, you know, he killed people throwing his bat when he hit the walkoff home. He's all team. Hi. I mean, they, and they look, you can tell they love him too. If you're into that team, they think which I'm not so much. That's 50, 50 for me. I'm more of getting it down, getting it singing guy. But boy, I tell you, he's, he had it last year was a four win season form, four point three this year. He's five point six war. Yeah, I had my doubts about that carrying over from Steinbrenner to a legit major league field. Kevin, he has his doing it. Boy, boy, he has hit 93 home runs in 355 games. Yeah. 45 home runs last year and 154 41 this year and 151. Yeah. So no, okay, defender to, I mean, but you know, that's not why you're paying it. No, you're paying him to do exactly what you just said. And you made it, you know, he is a guy. We saw him in the world baseball classic. We've seen him in Winterball. But you know, he is a guy that could

49:28conceivably put his imprint on the post season. All right. Maybe of a lot of the players out there of all the players out there. He could be the guy that we come away saying, wow, this, this was a coming out part of remote stopper. Oh boy. David Samson is host of nothing personal with David Samson. He joined the snacks display and Barker on Sportsman. So Toyota's easy choice sales event is on whether you're looking for the performance of the Camry, the versatility of her at four, the efficiency of a Corolla or all electric driving in the BZ. There's a Toyota that's just right for you. And with great deals across the lineup, now's the time to find yours. But hurry, these deals won't last long. Toyota's easy choice sales

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