The Yankees Are Pushing For the Division | FSY Podcast

0:00What is up everyone? Welcome to the Fireside Yankees podcast. The New York Yankees sweep the Colorado Rockies in the Bronx. We said it. Yes, or not yesterday. Sorry. Earlier in the week, we talked about how the Yankees needed to sweep this series. And we've got Sam back off the IEL. We've got the sweep that we thought this team needed. And we got a lot to talk about right here on the FSY show. Make sure you guys like subscribe to run the notification bell. I think I just like, I don't even know what I said there. Sam, how are you doing? How are you feeling, man? You know, at first things first, I completely forgot that this is my first episode off of the IEL. I actually spent this past weekend at the beach had a good time with the guys. It's really at the last like Beach weekend summer that you can enjoy. So I appreciate Mr. Chris Drew filling in for me this weekend. Much appreciated from my co-host over there at Fireside baseball. New episode dropping tomorrow. If you guys are interested in the entire landscape of Major League baseball outside of the New York Yankees. But listen, Ryan, honestly, an incredible week. I think there's a lot of positives to be able to pull from today. And I think that the overwhelming thing that you kind of have to talk about here is picked up a game today.

1:04picked up one more game on the Tampa Bay race after picking up a much needed sweep. Atlanta couldn't particularly do a job for us down there against Tampa Bay this week. But what are you going to do that least take one and we pick up a game to kind of walk down Tampa Bay. We'll see what happens. And then obviously this weekend is a big one. I'm excited about this weekend. I'm excited about what we saw this week. A lot of positives to be able to pull from it. But take it away, my man. We already want to start. Yeah, I think we should just start with Yankees sweep the Rockies. They handled business. I think this was very much a what you needed to do series. You know, I think sweeping is difficult. But when you're facing a post deadline Rockies team, a team that sold at the trade deadline. Not a ton of time. But did subtract pieces from an already terrible team. You've got to sweep them. And that's exactly what this Yankee team did. They got some timely hits Aaron Judge came back. That's a big storyline. But where I do want to start here. Is with Anthony Volpe. We're going to work in and we're not going to go in chronological order here.

2:05Because it's three baseball games against the Rockies. You won all three. We're all kind of played out pretty similarly. Volpe comes back to the Rockies team. We're all kind of played out pretty similarly. Volpe comes back up because Jazz just went down. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Has a finger injury removed from the game. He should be back when the Yankees come back from the road trip against the twins and the diamond backs is what Jazz told the media. But we'll wait and see. Volpe picks up an RBI single. He then picks up a grand slam. And I do think there's actually something for him to play for. It's not just pride or like trade value in 2027. Jose Caboero has been awful for like three months. Yeah. There's a Nick Rhymek man's WRC plus is 80 right now. Like there's there's playing time. If you stay hot and if you play well. So I mean, Sam. Kind of hard to deny like that's a pretty good way to return back to the Major League club. Yeah, pretty incredible moment tonight with him hitting the grand slam. Obviously big day offensively.

3:05Jason McGiss called him. What was it? Barry bonds down there triple A. I mean the numbers were there to back it up. I mean, he had a 1200 OPS. There's there's nothing that you could say to be able to understate would Volpe did a triple A. Obviously you then want to see the results translate into the big league level. I mean, like you can sit down there and smash and triple A all you want. I mean, I watched Oswald Paras and Everson Prayer do it for years and then they came to the big league club and they worked 500 OPS guys. But for Volpe here, big moments tonight. I think it was awesome for him after literally having his change snatch. Let's be honest here guys like he literally got his change snatch by George Lamar Jr. George comes up. He makes the instant impact. He looks really good defensively outside of the weird blips with the error thing for like a week, which was really odd. But he seemed to kind of gotten back to his normal self at this point in time. George is look good at the plate as well. And he literally got his change snatch to the point where. Hey, you got to learn second base. Hey, you got to learn third base. And listen, like you said, Ryan, there's playing time here for him to play. There's playing time here for him to play at their base. There's playing time here for him to be the guy at second base that platoons with jazz.

4:07Like if they want to go down that road where they had a platoon to jazz, even though he hit has been awesome for the past month. Your platoon partner is Anthony Volpe. I don't think you're platoon partners. Jose Capillero and. Something else here to Ryan that he could play for as well. Not only is it playing time right now, but I think it's also playing time in the future. They have the impending for agent with jazz is from junior. I think Volpe looks really good at second base in this little like 10 day state. I mean, like we'll see what happens after this 10 day. Staying if he goes back down if he sticks it on the big league roster. We don't know what's going to happen. But if he looks good over the defensively and the bat is really starting to come through. You got a spot in this roster next year, man. You're the team starting second base because jazz, if jazz ends up walking, they don't have to pay him. He's like, okay, we'll just stuff. We'll be at second base. And listen, this is where I'm going to shout out Chris Drew. Chris Drew, we actually have him on a recording. I think you it was the three of us in like mid May. We had a conversation about it and he straight up called Anthony Volpe is going to be your second baseman in 2027 for the New York Yankees. And we're kind of starting to see it coming for wishing. I'm not going to get incredibly excited after what we saw from one game.

5:10But listen, there's that bats here. There's enemies to be played here for Anthony Volpe. If you continue to produce, you have a spot in this roster. And at the end of the day, for as much of the listen, I you and I have been very critical with the organization and how they've handled Anthony Volpe. But at the end of the day, you're a New York Yankee. I'm going to root for you. If you're a New York Yankee, you play well. I'm going to root for you. I don't care what you are. Like it does not matter to me. Like you play well. You're in a spot in this roster. We're going to be happy with your production. We're going to cheer when the team wins. We're going to be upset with the team loses. That's how that works. And I'm really excited for Volpe. This is a big moment for him tonight. Yeah, and like I want to point to a couple of things. First and foremost, I thought the fan base at the stadium did a really cool job. Like I thought it was really cool that they. He returns back to the roster. They're cheering his name immediately. It's a pretty strong hand in the roll call. Got to really strong hand after the grand slam, which I thought was an important grand slam. Not just for him, but it was a two six ballgame. Like, you know, you were.

6:10What happened on Tuesday away from using Bednar again. And you don't want to be using David Bednar two times in a series against the Rockies. You should not need. You shouldn't have two safe situations in a series against the Rockies. They are bad. You should be beating the Tor out of the Rockies. And so for Volpe hitting that grand slam gave the Yankees a lot of insurance. Let the game kind of go to Louis, Louis, he'll and let them just kind of let him ride for two innings. He ate up the two innings. I'll take it. Yeah, you know what? And you know what? Good for him. Good for Louis. You know, I think to your point, right? Like as long as you play well, I don't think fans are going to be on his back. And I'll be honest, I think that, you know, if you play second base, he's a far better defensive second baseman than he is a shortstop. I think his range is really strong. I think the I test and the film shows that I was posting online a video that you could see a pretty notable difference. It is batting stance from 2026 to start the year.

7:11And right now, I think he's going back to some better habits. But time will tell, I think it's it's still way way too early to think of any market improvements or talk about market improvements here or there. I think we're just at the point where it's like, all right, really, really cool to have the impact and get it immediately on tomorrow. Like tomorrow, you're facing no more clean. You're going to start the match series big day in Volpe's trajectory. Like he needs to keep it going. And it will be a big series. We'll talk about the match series a little later. Obviously, there's a lot of emotional and and on field and off field stuff there. But I do want to kind of shift gears a little bit and talk about Luis Garcia Jr. Because he also had a really big series hits another home run in the series. He's up to a 135 WRC plus in the season. Here's a crazy stat for you, Sam. He has the lowest slugging percentage. Or no, sorry, the lowest strikeout rate for any hitter with a slugging percentage above 500.

8:15This season, nobody else. There's nobody who is statistically better at both making contact and generating damage contact than he is. Your thoughts. He's such a ball player. Like he's such an unbelievably incredible ball player. And you add him into the slug of Brian. And I think it's exactly what they needed. Or like I think that they were really they were missing a big bopper in the middle of the order. And I think that they were also missing guys with a tool. They're right. He's up to 288 on the season. They're in 288 on the air. The walks are down, which like sucks, right? You don't see that. But the slug is unbelievably out of the roof. I think every time you turn on your television, Luis Garcia Jr. sitting at home run. I think you asked me a couple of weeks ago, you and I were talking about 30 home run guys. And we were talking about guys in this roster specifically. And I tallied him for a 30 home or a year type of guy. And you you did have a little bit of push. You're like, yeah, I don't know. I think he's that good.

9:15I think he's that good. I think he's unbelievably good. The hit tools legit. He is exactly what this line of needed. And adding in Luis Garcia Jr. into this roster at the trend deadline is your big addition. I know that again, like I cannot scream it from the rooftops enough. How underrated that trade was like it was unbelievably underrated for giving up a guy like Juvana Cruz who like listen. I think that you and I liked a lot. But I don't think the organization had a lot of belief in he hasn't been great in Washington either. Like Luis Garcia Jr. is exactly what the son of needed for a team that lost our color stand and hasn't had to our color stand for the entirety of the season. And I think that at a legitimate middle of the order bat that fits perfectly into your roster. He's perfect for the short porch. We've seen that over the past like week or so. I feel like he's just pinging balls out at this point, Ryan. And it is expanded your offense into this point where you now have rice who I think is incredible. You just add a back judge. You have Luis Garcia Jr.

10:15Jazz wants to get back. He's been incredible over the last month or so. Like you have some true damage guys in the slide up to the point where you walk into the postseason. You feel incredibly confident about what you have on the batting side of things. Right? Like I think the question this year has never been about the pitching staff. We found our questions about the bullpen and how poor that unit was constructed. But they've actually been unbelievably great for the names that are at least on the paper. But for a point in time in the middle of the summer. They went through this unbelievable slump where I think that if you look at the picture. I think that if you looked at them from four to nine, they were so bad. And you add Luis Garcia Jr. into this mix. And you just become a legitimate great offensive team. I think they're a great offensive team, Ryan. Like I think that you look at those names on paper. I think they're a great offensive team. Like the numbers might not suggest it. But I think that this line of the sick. I think they're unbelievably great. Yeah, I think so to add on your Luis Garcia Jr. point about the trade. If you really boil down what this is, they flipped Jake Bird.

11:16Who was a bust of a trade it was a trade that did not work out for them. They throw. As you mentioned, Giovanni Cruz, who was a minor league free agent signing. He was a might not a major league for agent. A minor league for agent signing. He was in a minor league organization. He had never pitched above double a part of the deal as well. Jack Seabirt was a believe a 16th round pick. And there was a fourth player moved in this deal. I always forget the fourth player. Oh, it's been great. I think he's a good get for the nationals. But I think you make this deal 10 times out of 10. If you're the Yankees, like this isn't. This really isn't a hard one. And even for like what. Ben Grable is right now. He's not going to help the nationals bullpen right now. He's not presently a big leager. And he's not going to profile like a big leager just yet. I think with time he will. But again, just not right now. And you know, going back to Garcia. They just needed a good hitter. This team needed a good hitter. And you know, I talked about how. At the deadline, we really did not care what. Hand or side of the plate they were hitting from.

12:17It's just a matter of whether they made this team better. Luis Garcia, Jr. Is 13th among qualified hitters in WRC plus this year. He's right. And I know he's a platoon player. So you can't really compare him to like couch, rubber properly. Because couch, rubber faces left these. Right. Garcia has not faced a bunch of lefties. But you're getting Kyle Schwarber, Yondi D. As Sayez, Azuki, Rafael Devers, Max Muncie, Freddie Freeman, outputs in terms of OPS and WRC plus from a guy who you did not trade. One of your five to 10 best prospects for. And for a guy who you have next year, a guy who, you know, is young enough that you could reasonably consider extending hit them. He's played great defense at first base. You know, these are. This is a guy who makes this team a lot better and provides a profile that is super important to this offense, which is better contact abilities, better basketball skills. I think he's like your ideal cleanup hitter when Aaron Judges healthy. Correct. He is now, which is thumbs up. Do you want to shift gears and get into Aaron Judges a little bit?

13:17Because I thought, you know, just having him back, it was like, oh my god, I love it. I just, you know, I just want to say one thing about Luis J. Yeah, please. And I need this to be on the airwaves. This is my new favorite player on the team. Totally fair. Like this is my new favorite player on the team. Like my. So it's, it's tough, dude. I feel like the entire time I've been on this podcast, I've never been able to talk about my favorite player. My favorite player on this team is not called a stand. And he's just dead or whatever. Right. So like I haven't had a lot of, having had a lot of emotional feelings toward my favorite player this season. I think my favorite player in this team is Luis Garcia Jr. Like he's rock star. Like he's a beast. Like that's, I think that's my guy. You were talking about Judgy. Yeah. I think. Okay, full transparency to the audience. I did not watch today's game. I was out on the town. I was doing some things today. Guy was a little bit busy. I did miss the game a little bit late. What did Judgy do today? Can you inform me?

14:18Aaron Judges did what you did. He wasn't there. He was there. He was there. I wasn't there. I didn't need to play. They, they, they, they were, they gave him the off day. So he could play tomorrow. Oh, that's right. He was off today. I could play for you. But listen, I think last time it was huge seven or red direction for him. As far as I think that his at bats on Tuesday. In the box score, it looked ugly. But I think that if you watched his at bats, I think the timing was off. Like there were, I think it was his second at bat in the fourth inning of the game on Tuesday. Yeah. There were two straight pitches that he fell it off. There were both like 85 mile an hour sliders. And they are typically pitches that he. Donks over the short portion right field. And he just sent him straight foul. It's a timing thing with him right now. I think that Ryan, like, listen. I think that his presence in it of itself is probably the biggest thing that you're getting from him right now. But I think it's a timing issue. He didn't take any rehab games. Like he's just straight back into the roster after what was it 84 games in 99 days. Right, it's incredibly tough to come back and be the best best player in the planet.

15:19But I think that if you give him, you know, at least a week and a half or two. I think the order of our back and we'll be the best player in the planet in no time. And listen, my sentiment with this has always been, you know, if you get him back at this point in time, I think that are always, you know, we were looking to like September five. Just the real sick like time for him to come back or like whatever. Obviously comes back September eight. If you give him like, I don't know, a two, two and a half week ramp up. I mean, you're entering October and then you're like, oh my god, Aaron judge found it. And Aaron judge found it when you're entering the wild card series. Aaron judge found it when you're entering the DS or the CS or the world series. Like you're getting back the best part in the planet. And you're giving him time to be able to figure it out right before the post season starts, which I think is incredible. So I think that his presence is incredible. And the bats look good. Honestly for him missing an incredible amount of time, which is ridiculous. Like it's over impressive that he can step out of the baseball field and look like that after missing that much time.

16:22Like it's unbelievable. So I think his presence is awesome. I think the bats are going to come. Like it's he's, I think that he gets one this weekend, which is going to be huge for his confidence. I think it's going to be big for this team. But I'm just given two weeks and I think he'll look incredible again. Yeah, I'm with you on all on all on all fronts. I think with Aaron judge, part of it too is just a presence just having him back rock seeing the stadium reaction to him. The stadium pop when when he was up at the plate for the first time since coming back from the I L. I think this is a presence thing. But this is a developing story. There's something that we're going to I think follow closely obviously, but have here to say as he plays more, you know, because right now it's just. All right, he's there. He's he played through his progressions. He played his many endings he's supposed to. He played the field. He took at bats and he didn't get hurt doing it. All right. Check on to the next step, which is. Yeah, good to go. Seeing him start to get it rolling. And I think the getting the first home run back is a nice like you want to get that monkey off your back.

17:23Because you know, you don't want us to be 10 games and 15 games and 20 games. Well, season's over. Right. Like a season's over. Posting time. Decade. Deaked everybody last time. Yeah, he got that was pretty hard on that center field. Deep to center field and it was. Just straight to the center field. It was straight to Jake McCarthy. You know, it's like. But I think it's what I will say to his like I think it's the feeling everyone has with Aaron judge right now, which is every fly ball he hits with any distance is going to get. Right. It just is for sure. But to your point again, he's he's no rehab assignment. You know, he's and I guess. I was informed on my school campus by one of my buddies that. This is not like a thing you can say, but I thought it's a thing you can say. Is it like inappropriate say raw dogging like he we raw dog. Getting back to the big leagues. Is that like that's insane. Is that actually the same thing to say? I don't think it's particularly insane, but I do think that it's frowned upon. Okay. I definitely think it's frowned upon.

18:23He went cold turkey. He went cold turkey. That's cold turkey is. Yeah, I think that's fair. Okay. Okay. All right. I don't know. I was just curious. This is an applicable. This is an applicable. This was an applicable. A situation to use a term like that or adjacent to it. I just didn't know it was like automatic bad connotation. I was aware. You say raw dog like I'm. That's fair. I'm thinking what Cam does to the red socks. We're going to talk about Cam later. Go. Go. That's what I think. Right. We said it turned to me. People talk about like like raw dog in flights. Yeah. You know, when you like just sit on the flight, do nothing like you sleep or like whatever. Like you don't read. You don't look at your phone. Like sure. Got it. Yeah. No, I don't. That's also like an interesting way to use it. I don't think that I've ever heard somebody use it in that sense. This horse talking about him coming back with the rehab assignment. I just, I don't know. I just thought a raw dog in baseball is every corner.

19:25Yeah. Like he's raw dog and big leagueer. Just went just went straight to it. Um, he might think offense of that. I'm sorry, Mr. He's raw dogging a big leagueer. Mr. 400. Mr. 99. I deeply apologize. I'll, I'll, I'll submit a formal apology. That's tall. Just, just, just check your inbox. I'll send you a shout out. Shoes. Yeah, I'll give him a little shoe shine. Judgy, I know the cleats might be a little bit, you know, might be a little dusty, a little dirty. I just need, I just need a rag. I don't, you know, I, I watched for sure. I don't want to use one of those, you know, it's not, not of your ilk, you know, I don't know what type of fabric you like using this stat in the third. Let's get into baseball. Let's get into. Um, speaking of tall outfielders. What a segue. segway, wow Spencer Jones Spencer Jones another really strong series three hits today. He is now slashing 255 333 452 with a 119 WRC plus in the season. I've been

20:29really impressed with his at bats since coming back up. I've been really impressed with the way that I feel that he navigates at bats and counts. Sometimes he finds himself in a two strike count. And look, he's going to strike out, right? Like we know that. That's always been a thing in his game. And when you get to two strikes, usually you strike out, but there are times where he gets to two strikes and he goes out there and he fights. He stays in the at bat. He fights the pitches off and then gets a pitch to handle and drives it. Or doesn't see a single strike the rest of the way and gets on base via the walk. I've been really, really impressed and duties just straight up in one of their best players for like the last two months. Sam, where are we at with Spencer Jones right now, man? Yeah, I think the hit tool is probably the most impressive thing here, right? I think if I'm not mistaken, listen, I'm out of your ilk. Okay. I'm definitely not of your ilk as far as in zone contact rates. Is that something that is improved? I'm assuming during this, what is it? Thirds in the big leagues. I would assume he's drastically improved. Yeah, it's so since so he came back up technically, he came up on July 22nd for a brief cup

21:33of coffee. He was like the 26 man for the double header against the pirates. But from his major league debut through that July game against the pirates, it was a 69.3% zone contact rate and a 40.7% strike up rate. Now I don't have the updated numbers after today's game, but entering play today in this third stint, 68.8% zone contact rate and a 33.1% strike up. So much better. Yeah, his zone contact rate as a whole, we're back, we're in like Ronald Cuny Jr. Raphael Devers, Nicholas Kurtz, that territory. That's where we're at with hitters. Which is still like he doesn't make a lot of contact. He's not making contact. He's swinging him, missing a ton. No, for sure. But those are three very good big league hitters. Now, there are some guys in that contact range who are not good. It's not that, you know, if you don't make a lot of contact, you're going to be good. But he's making contact at a rate

22:33that we have seen guy succeed with before for contacts. Joey Gallo in eras where strike at rates weren't always as high was like a 70% zone contact rate guy. So we are clear that threshold. We are no longer in historically abnormal. We are just. Thank goodness. Normally very bad. If that makes sense. And that was, I think that was the fear. Or like I think that that the fear was that Jones was going to be the Joey Gallo, but with not enough power. I think the Gallo was like a productive big league player. Obviously like, you know, for us talking about him on the show, it's going to be about his Yankee tenure and how poor he was out there. But he was a steady a 50 OPS guy who walked a ton hit a ton of bombs. He just struck out at a 40% clip and couldn't touch the ball half the time. So I think that was our fears that he was going to be a worse version of what Gallo was. But I think that he's been unbelievably, unbelievably impressive during this stint. Ryan, listen, you and I had this conversation. I think it was on the last show that I was on. I think it was on Thursday last week. And it was, hey, like, you got to play Jones every single

23:37day. Obviously, the Grisha, injury has taken him out of this mix. But like, this is your job. Like, this is yours. Like you were the starting center fielder for the 2026 New York Yankee playoff team. Like, this is you. And he is produced to a level like no other. Like, I, did you expect him to be this good? I did not expect him to even touch this. I, I think there were a couple of things that I thought going into the year number one. He wasn't going to get the reps. Like I just didn't think he was going to get the reps. Right. Number two, I didn't think that the team's profile, which is they strike out a lot and Spencer Jones who strikes out a lot would mesh. He's made rapid improvements with his hit tool. He has made a bunch of really good progress with his swing decisions. Like, he is way better at making. He is one of the best swing decision makers in the game. He swings it. Everything you're supposed to hit. And while he still chases a good bit,

24:37that's a fine trade off for swinging at literally everything you're supposed to hit. It's why you find him in like runner on third runner on second situations and a guy feeds him a fastball in the zone because they don't want to walk him and he just drives it. It's the first pitch of the at bat. He drives it. Very rarely you go through an entire at bat without seeing a strike or a pitching zone. Jones sees that pitch and he's like that, that's my that might be the only got that might be the only chance I get at driving a baseball. That's the right way to go about hitting for Spencer Jones. I just I do feel that that's the right way to go about hitting for him. And I think that not enough guys in this team do that. And I think it's actually he has a flaw that a lot of people on this team has, but he also has a skill that literally nobody else in this team has, which is he's going to swing at pitches to hit almost every time, which I just think this offense is desperately needed. Again, especially in runner on base situations where look, I love walks, but like a walk with a runner on second and one out is not as valuable as a single, that's just a fact. Right.

25:38Just a fact that that's not OPS proves that point. But so does like basic knowledge. It's more room production at the end of the day. It's just more reproduction. Yeah, like it's one score. It's more reproduction. Right. Like it's it's not past the baton. It's let's smash here. It's good to start on. And you like lineup diversity. You want like you want guys to feel different roles in your offense. You want guys to do different things. That's something that I think the team should pivot more towards as they get into the 2027 season. But that's a different conversation. Like that's a layer down the road conversation. But for now what you can do is have a guy expense or Jones who again goes about his bats very differently from everybody else in the team. And again, like just straight up has is having a good year. He's having a good year. Like he's straight up just hitting. It's been again an awesome, awesome stretch to watch for a guy who like probably the most polarizing prospect in baseball when he came up. Yeah, I mean like like I like I asked you earlier, compared to what we expected out of him this

26:42season specifically. I expected him to be a guy that I don't know. Get your reps here and there. We'll call you up whenever like I think that he fell into the Jason Dominguez mold for me. Where it was like, hey, like I don't know if the bat is good enough. Similar to the point where like I didn't think that Jason's defense was enough, right? And it's gotten to a point where this is a player you have to play for single day. You have to plug in your lineup. He makes you deeper. And to your point of like I want them to just have different guys in this roster. I know I'm going to get back to this, but like it's like Luis Garcia Jr. is like one of those guys that gives them just like another different mold of player that they haven't particularly seen. So there's so much diversity in the lineup as well, which is really cool. And Jones is also like kind of, I don't necessarily want to say that he's filled this Aaron judge sized hole, but it's very similar profile as far as big power pop. Yeah, it hits when they come to you like he's like, I don't

27:50I mean, listen, he's Spencer Jones has been better than Joey Gallo's at the Yankees. So like he's not close. Oh my god. Yeah, I think he's like with us. Like is Spencer Jones if Joey Gallo pan down? Yeah, at least it's right. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's a 115 WRC plus. He's hitting what 240 240 clip. He's slugging 470. Like I think it's if Joey Gallo pan out, he would be Spencer Jones this year. And Gallo was also a really good defender, I feel. Yeah, I think one thing I would point out with with Jones versus Gallo. And this is something that I got I got a credit to Smith, Berkner, because he mentioned this when I did a show with him in August, was actually during the Yankees Mariners series where Spencer Jones hits more line drives in his less fly ball reliance than Joey Gallo. And so you can expect a better batting average. Jones is sitting 255 with a 333 on base percentage. I know he doesn't walk as much as Gallo. And I

28:54don't think he has the same like upper echelon home run power as a result of not being super like must hit everything hard at like a 50 degree launch angle. You know what I mean? That's extreme. Like a 40 degree, 35 degree launch angle. Joey Gallo had a career launch angle of 23.4 degrees. Spencer Jones around 18 degrees. That is a pretty sizable difference. It's unbelievably sizable. But it's going to result in fewer home runs, but a higher average. I do think that for Jones, given that you know that high strikeout guys come with a lot of volatility in their averages, just like their day to day performance, I would I think Gallo would have benefited from like shaving off X amount from his 100% and adding it to his batting average because he wouldn't, there just isn't the same level of collapse risk on that front. And I do think Jones the better athlete than Gallo was. The question for these guys is like the shelf life. How long can he do this for? Gallo was done at 30. You know, I mean, there aren't a lot of, I guess there aren't a lot of

29:59examples of like Joey Gallo in the baseball universe. Adam Dunne, I guess, is another comparable. Yeah. Adam Dunne was, yeah, I mean, Adam Dunne's actually a good cop here because like Adam Dunne stopped playing major league baseball at 34 granted. That was a lot because of his that had a lot to do with his defense, but he stopped being Adam Dunne at 31. His, his, yeah, could hit. Yeah, so his, his WRC plus through his age 30 season was 131 after that point in time was 104. And then he's the only guy he's bringing to a team. Yeah, the only guy he's bringing to a team was being able to mash and like when he lost it like it, because I know it's a big one, but like, I also know lost it in like his late 20s. There's also just like this physical specimen that we've never seen. Right. So like, yeah, yeah, who is, who is the other comparable to Jones at that frame? Yeah, orange. Yeah. Like guys that have actually panned out. It's Aaron. Judge. I would say

31:01only old crews is like the fun example for like a modern guy because he, I mean, he, I don't know if you just saw he hit like the hardest home run in MLB history today. Yeah, but like the problem with crews is like he can hit the crap out of the ball. It's great. Right. Never been able to put it all together. He doesn't have a defensive position. Like he was really poor shortstop put him in center field. I think he's really poor in center field as well. So it's like he's an a ridiculous athlete that hits the crap out of the ball. But like, just can never seem to put it all together. And I like, I have my struggles with trying to pinpoint what he is as a ball player. Like, you know what? It's a freak physical specimen that just hits the crap out of the ball. Or can he like be a productive big leader on a winning organization? And you know what though, this guy we'd say has not really put it together in his career yet. He's a really good year this year. But like throughout his career has not like had a great career. Still in a ball

32:04of average OPS. Right. So, so like when you get these freak talents, even if this is the best that Jones is, like it's around a 115 120 OPS plus hitter, it's a really good outcome. They're taking it really, even if he never pops like the Aaron Judge Peak year, even like the Joey Gallo 2019 year, one more comp I wanted to throw out here just like the insane strikeout rate guys, not like a direct comp to Jones Chris Carter. Fun name was done at. I just fun name. Also had like like it's the question for Jones will be shelf life. I think the questions about Spencer Jones right now have been kicked down to all right. We have seen like we've seen we've seen you do it in your rookie year. We want an extended sample size to know that you're actually like a good hitter. The team can build you into their everyday lineup and not worry about having to pull you because you lost it. And then the question after that's going to be all right, how long can you do this for? How many years is it going to be the entire duration of your rookie contract? Or is it going to be is it going to be beyond that? Like what is it going to be? Is really the question there?

33:06You have any final thoughts you want to add on Mr. Spencer Jones? Yeah, he's also in this air where like Ryan right now if you played the full season, he'd be at like a 20 home receipts and with a 115 WRC plus. And probably two F4. I think you take that from your center fielder. Like it's an above average guy. I think that you take that clip. And like I mentioned with Volpe earlier as far as guys that can play themselves into not only positions right now, but I think into the future and into next year. He's in the same exact boat. Like you could walk in the next season and Trent walks jazz walks and you have homegrown guys right there with Jones and Volpe that you could slot in like which makes sense if they obviously if they pan out. Like I'm not going to sit here and tell you the Jones sample size is large enough that I could sit here and tell you I hope probably your center fielder next year. Volpe you have to be seen. It's all about a game. Obviously it's been Barry Bonster play. But Jones can play himself into a starting position next year, the year after that, the year after that. So I'm excited to see

34:08what he does in a postseason series. Ryan because he is the type of bat that can give you the big boom at some point in time, which would be really cool to say. Give you what? Bring the boom. That's what we do. We bring the boom. We bring the boom to you. There's a boomer boat bus profile and he could strike out a bunch in a playoffs series and that could kill you. Like I recognize that. I don't what's up? Anybody could. Right. Right. Like three years or two years ago. Two years ago. Does that? Sorry. It's an asshole or marketing fair. But like, but that's what he did in the postseason two years ago. Like he struck out like 40 percent clip. Like look, it can happen. Like his zone contact rate is actually basically seems to jazz as this year, which I think is hilarious. But, but you know, I'll give you one more stat on Jones and then I want to talk about a narrative. I want to do a little bit of narrative falling. Of course. I love this. My favorite game. So for the Jones stat, damage rate is a statistic that was developed by Robert or baseball

35:11prospectus. It's just damage per bad ball event. It's a pretty, you know, per bad ball, whatever. Nicholas Kurtz, Minatech and Murakami, James Wood, Aaron Judge, Spencer Jones, all within 1.5 percent of points of each other. And this is before today where Jones likely shot back. He might have just shined to like second place in this stat. For context, you're on Alvarez 27.5 percent, Spencer Jones, 30.6 percent Spencer Jones is 0.7 percent behind Aaron Judge in this statistic. Yeah, he does a ton of damage, man. He hits the piss out of the baseball. We might have something here, folks. And this has something here, folks. I want to know, damage, this damage rate stat is a stat I like because it also bakes in. Are you lifting the ball? Are you hitting it in the air? Are you hitting it in the air to the pull side? Like, it's not just a raw like one to one of exit velocity. Although, of course, exit velocity has a strong, is a strong

36:17indicator of this stat, right? Of course it is. Right. If you're doing damage, you gotta hit the ball hard. But I find that fascinating that Jones is really displaying 80 grade power. And it's translating into game power. And again, he's just an immaculate swing decision maker. And yeah, yeah, I'm excited. I'm really excited. Let's do a little narrative balling here, Sam. Okay. Sam, did you know these are my favorite shows? I love this. This is great. Yeah, did you, um, you know, again, I'm just, just surveying the field, just looking at the baseball universe, right? The NL MVP race is over, right? You and I are aware of that. For sure. It's done down. Done. Can't slightly leads the American League of War based ball reference. But fan graphs, I believe he is either in second now, or like right behind Nordon, and behind Bobby Whit by less than one win above replacement. Um,

37:17is camp slightly MVP race. Sam, he is the end for the sign award. Oh, oh, sorry. Go ahead. He's the MVP. Go ahead. I got him. Yeah, I'm the Yankee fan. I'll sit or tell you, he's the MVP. He's the most valuable player in the American League. He's the, he's been the best pitcher in the American League for the entirety of the season. It's been consistency after consistency. He is given you every day when he walks out. You win a baseball game every single time. You're on, awesome. You've had a great year. 180 WRC plus Aaron judge puts up 200 puts up 200 WRC plus a single season. Like we don't like we see these things, right? Cancel it. There's 2026 season. And I saw my cocaine said this today. It's arguably the greatest Yankee starting pitcher season of all time. But when you break down the numbers, it is unbelievably similar to Gidry's. Like the impact that he has left on this team has been generational. Could you imagine where this

38:20team would be without him between Cole coming back late, the Max Fried injuries, the Rodan injuries, the inconsistencies of World War and now the Ryan weather's injuries who he was unbelievable before he went down. But he has been the one mainstay in this rotation and he has managed to stick his ERA at a 2.01 for the entire season. If they didn't have Camsel or Ryan, because they went an extended period of time without their best pirate Aaron judge, they didn't have Camsel or I don't know if they're in a playoff spot. I really don't. Because realistically he gives you a win every single time he's gone out there. How many starts you made this year? I believe Camsel or is yeah, he's up to this is his 30th start against the Rockies. Give those starts to Louis Gale. You lose 22 more games. Give those starts to Louis Cille. You lose 22 more games. Like they are. I don't think they're in a postseason spot. I think I don't know Camsel or because of the amount of injuries they dealt with in the starting fishing department this season. Granite, incredible unit when they're all healthy. It's awesome.

39:23Siong Air Cole. Max Fried's got the big boy contract. Rodan's got the big boy contract. Camsel Hitler is the ace of this roster. He's the American league Sion and he has been the best player in the American league this season. I respect to hell out of what your dogs don't out there in Houston. But I think he's the best part of the American league. What I would say is two things. One, I don't think I firmly believe Schletler is the MVP. I think I just I'm at the point of hey, he should finish top three in voting. Like I don't think there's you can't tell me there's a third player who's who's been more valuable. You just can't. But I'm going to ask the voter who votes for your on your down Alvarez. Why are you voting for your down Alvarez for MVP? I'm just not not not like it's stupid. I'm just asking again, why are you voting for him to win MVP? Is it because he has the best OPS and baseball? That's fine, right? Like I think that's totally fine. Is there a definitive measure to suggest that he's more valuable than

40:28Cam Schletler? I think that's up to interpretation. I just think that if you believe you're on Alvarez should win MVP, which he seems to be the front runner, even though I don't think he should have this wrapped up. But I think it gets talked about like he has it wrapped up. Again, that's just my two cents. I think that Cam Schletler and you're on Alvarez are comparable candidates. This is a question about whether you value a an elite D H or an elite starting pitcher. That's what this comes down to. They take on a similar load. One guy doesn't play the field. One guy takes the ball every third day. Cam Schletler is face 701 batters and Jordan Alvarez has taken 633 play appearances. They have played they have provided the same amount of volume because again, Yordon does not play the field. Yordon is a D H. Yordon has played left field 23 times this year. Are we going to really sit here and say that the 177 innings he's played out there with negative five D R S and negative

41:31three fielding run value makes him more valuable than Cam Schletler. I just don't believe that. I just don't. Now, if you want to say Bobby with junior because Bobby with junior has more war. Okay, fine. You vote on war. That's whatever. I'm not going to sit here and say it's a stupid argument. I just think that's fine. The Al MVP, I think the last five years has all been won by the leader and wins. But replacement. That's fine. You want to make that the president. That's fine. I don't care. But if you're voting for Yordon, I just have a hard time seeing how you can vote for Yordon and tell me that he is definitively and inarguably better than Cam Schletler. You either have to be a Bobby with junior MVP guy or I think you got to be tossing and turning between Yordon and Cam Schletler. The markets do not agree with this assessment. The markets believe based on voter trends that Yordon will in MVP and understandly so if I was a betting man, I would bet on Yordon Alvarez to win MVP. But I don't think it, I just don't think it makes baseball sense if that makes sense. And I, I've just, that's why I settled with this. I would also to, you know, kind of

42:40speaking about the other pitches as well. Like I would, I think she should finish top 10 of this order as well. You can argue she finished top five. Like I think blue chains without this guy. I mean, my pushback is, is on Schletler Yordon with, I think my conical dude is having a really good year is, is he in, is he inarguably better than Dylan C's? He is not. So that's like where it is. But like, yeah. So, so the argument is there that we can have two pictures in the top five. So it's not, yeah. Just sitting here saying this because, hey, where Yankee show, I have to sit here and gas up camp, so because where Yankee show Yordi, Yorda, Yorda, I will also give my flowers to Dylan C's because he's been unbelievably great this year. Where I thought that contract shocked. That was horrible. Seven year two 10 for a guy that was consistently putting up a 4.5 year I, like, what was the point in that? I understood why they liked him. I just thought it was a lot of money for a guy. It was a ton of money. And it's a, and a seven year deal for a guy that like,

43:40had struggled so heavily over the past couple of seasons, it was like, what the hell are we doing here? But unbelievable deal for them. And like, listen, if, I mean, if they don't have C's, they are dead out of it. Really, I think they've had their deficiencies as a team over the past couple of months as far as, you know, Vlad can't hit. Their offense is totally regressed. Like, they've had their issues. But what are they without C's? I mean, are they the angels? Are the athletics? They are, like, he's probably giving them 15 wins. Like, come on. Yeah. So, I mean, it's unbelievable. I'll say, I will say to with, with what I will, but I will, I will note, like, as much as I've been really impressed with C's this year, I will also make this very quick point. If you are a voter and you had this, the data set that's currently, uh, uh, that's currently reality with Schletler and C's, if you had both of their stats from this year, and you were a Si Young Award voter, there is like no chance you don't give Schletler unanimous

44:44Si Young. Now, I'm not saying it's wrapped up. That's a very, that's a very different point. Very, very, very good point. Long way to go. Right. But if you were to vote based on what we know right now, and that alone, and you voted for Dylan C's, you should lose your, your ability to vote for Si Young Award. You have no idea how to assess. I agree. Not at all. Yeah. And like the previous argument was like underlying numbers. I don't know if you guys are aware of this. Uh, and I really like, I truly, I'm not saying, Camp Schletler's underrated. That's a ridiculous claim. I think Camp Schletler is properly rated in the public sphere. He's just like, very hated and highly criticized. Like, that's just what it is. And looking, invited on himself, he enjoys that attention. It's part of it. It comes with the territory. You have to be comfortable with that. If you're a Yankee fan, and if you really like Camp Schletler, sorry, you got to live with it. Um, he is the American league league leader in skill interactive, you know, Ray, he's right behind Gavin Williams and strike out minus walk rate for the second spot. He is number one. I think in whip. No, no, he's, he's number two right behind

45:46Drew Rasmussen. Um, I hope you are guys are noticing the fact that these are different pictures. Not, like, these are, these are like, none of these guys are consistently ahead of, of Schletler here. Schletler has the underlying numbers argument as well. I think the idea that like, first off, I don't think you should vote for a signed award on underlying numbers. I've said this a million times on this show, uh, my show, Twitter, Instagram, wherever you want to, you know, find me talk about the sign, sign award. I've said it, but it's ridiculous disassertion that like the underlying numbers indicate that the sign should go anywhere else. Camp Schletler is the best pitcher in the AL. And yeah, I do think I, I think if I were a voter and I was just biased because I mean, Yankee fan, I would vote for Schletler. I've just, I watched him every fifth day. Right. It's not just the fact that he's taking the ball every fifth day. Think of the amount of times that like the bullpen shot or it's going to be shot the next day and Schletler pitches deep into the game and you have a bullpen the next day because of him. It's, it's, it's, it's imperative that your starters give you length and he gives you length. It's imperative that your starters rebound

46:51after bad starts and he does how many times as a camp Schletler had a bad start after a bad start. How many times that happened back to back times? Passing on. Do you know, sure, a lot more than three runs this year? Twice? Three times. Okay. Three times twice in June. Once in August, there was the first start back in the trade. He went from that's it. He went to the weird blip in the middle of June. Who's awkward? Yeah, but it was like, but it was, but it was a weird blip for him. Yes. I mean, it's like, it's a weird blip for the best picture in the American League. He's also made a change and this is the last point I'll make. I don't keep saying that this is the last point. It's the last point. Yeah. I just like, I find myself consistently saying things about camp Schletler. Um, camp Schletler got blown up by the cardinals. His fastball arm angle at that point was 42 degrees. After that start, but he got blown up. Like, he was, this was a really bad camp Schletler start for anyone who, um, to remember that start.

47:55After that start, he drops his arm angle by four degrees. 1.15 year array, 33.6% strikeout rate, 0.79 whip. Batters are hitting 148 against him. 148. Their contact rates in zone. It's, it's, it's Spencer Jones' contact rate. Every batter is running Spencer Jones' contact rates against it. Since that point in time. So, um, yeah, you can't like, I, this guy's just on a different level. Yeah, this guy's on a different level. Um, this is the best Yankee pitching season since we're on Gidry in 1978. Yes. Um, and I don't think people understand better. No, because Gidry, Gidry ended up with 273 innings pitched. Camp Schletler is doing it with two. I know. I'll take the 73 additional innings on top of that. Yeah, sure. It will with the same year array, although by ERA plus Schletler, slightly better at

48:59run prevention, um, when you're adjusting for ERA, which is ridiculous to say out loud. Again, Ron Gidry had by far the greatest pitching season of franchise history. Right. Schletler will have, like, look, if Schletler, let's say finishes like a, like a, like a markedly better ERA plus, yeah, then yeah, you can have the conversation. It's the best pitching season ever by Yankee. Um, but he's in the, it's not ridiculous to talk about it. The fact that I can talk about Ron Gidry 1978 and Camp Schletler 2026. Yeah, I mean, in the same breath. Garrett never did that. No. Max hasn't done that. No. I never did that. Sees never did it. Clement. I could never did it. Nope. Rocket never did it. No, we've seen it never did it. Nope. Like, this is one of the all-time great pitching seasons. My, my favorite one is, um, I think I tweeted this out last night. Um, with single season ERA leaders or the last 10 seasons, excluding 2020 because thanks, season, not real. Some of those names are gross. Uh, he is sixth on that list at 2.01.

50:04Obviously, Mizorowski's unbelievable this year at 1.97, but it's skiing, snow, Verlander, to ground. Like, these are the generational pictures, the guys that will be talking about in 30 years as far as, oh, wow, the 2010s, who are the best pictures on the planet? Verlander, to ground, sure. So like that group of players, this era, it is Mizorowski skiing Schletler. I'm just putting David Ortiz right there. It's like I couldn't say it. Yeah, I couldn't say it. That was tough. Um, but yeah, like that's, that is the group of players that we are putting in Kampsel, like that's how incredible he is. So unbelievably impressive. I think that, listen, I'll be honest, he's not going to win the American League MVP Award. It's going to get a little header. It's fine. It's whatever. But I will state my case for it. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Yeah. And with that, it's a good time for us to hit an ad break. And then when we come back, crown our Aspen Vodka player of the series, do a series preview, and then we'll wrap up the show.

51:04Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back here on the Fireside Yankees podcast. This video is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is the number one sports pick app in America. It's available in places such as Texas and California. And it is a super seamless and easy app to use. All you have to do is pick player stats and you can either go more or less. There are also team picks as well. It's a very expensive app. There's a ton of action going on there. And let me show you how easy it is to use the price picks app. We're going to use Garrett Cole at more than five and a half strikeouts against the blue jays. Then we're going to scroll down and chase my drop. This played really well as a late. So we're going to take more for four hitter fantasy score. And we're going to finalize this lineup with show. Hey, O'Tani at over half a hits plus runs plus RBI. Now we can press that finalize lineup button. And we can pick between power play or flex play. Get a couple of options here. Flex play gives you a lower max payout. But you can still retain your money if you get to correct place versus the power play where you risk it for the biscuit. And once we press the bit lineup, it's really that simple. It doesn't take a lot of time. And it's a super seamless

52:09experience. Our friends at prize picks made sure to give us an offer to hand out to you guys. And this offer is for first time users use the code HMA or the link in our description and get 150 dollars. If you win on your first five dollar lineup, again, that's 150 dollars. If you win on your first five dollar lineup, play responsibly, play within your means and tail my picks at Ryan Garci at ESM. Thinking of price picks, sponsoring today's video. Let's get back to the regular scheduled podcast. Welcome back everyone to the fireside Yankees podcast. My name is Ryan Garci. I joined by Sam as always. Sam, it's time for us to hand out our Aspen vodka player of the series and following a sweep. It could not be sweeter, but I'll tell you right now, it could be even better with a cold ice cold drink with some Aspen vodka in it. Go to Yankee Stadium right now while you can and get the Bronx mocktail or the espresso martini. You guys can go to Aspen vodka's website itself and on the website, you can search which liquor stores near you carry Aspen vodka,

53:09must be 21 or older to drink drink responsibly and let's crown our Aspen vodka player of the series. Sam, who are you honoring with this prestigious award? Louis MFG, the greatest Louis Garcia Jr. One of the best hitters on the planet. Let's be frank about it. Third and his port and slugged percentage continues to hit. Like I said earlier, I feel like every time I turn on my television, every time I turn on my monitor, he's hitting yet another home run. He's been such an incredible impact in the middle of this order. Ryan, I think he's going to look unbelievably sweet right behind Aaron Judge hitting in that cleanup spot for this Yankee lineup. You get another awesome series this week against Colorado Rockies. It's for me, it's Louis J. It's my guy. I gotta give it to my brother, Louis J. It's my Aspen vodka player of the series. I think it's a great pick. I think Louis Garcia Jr. has been an awesome Yankee. He's been an integral player for this lineup. We talked about him earlier in the podcast and I second every statement you and I made in regard to

54:11how important he's been for this team. And I think it's one of Brian Cashman's best acquisition to go down as one of his better acquisitions of the last decade. I was good to go with Spencer Jones. I was thinking about Cam Schlittler. Those are the two guys that really juggling my mind the most, but I made a last second switch today. I'm going to give it to Anthony Volpe. LP. Beacuse I gotta say first and foremost, listen, he makes one mistake. He's getting booed. And he knows that he's not he's not stupid. He's got social media. He can see tweets. He can see what I say, he can see what you say. You see what everyone says about him. So for him to go up there and have really good at that's for him to help this team win ball games a ball game today. And for him to come up and just head down. Let's go to business. I really, I really appreciate that he went down and tripled and went to work and made changes and and and I don't know if it's going to work. I don't. I would bet on it not working if I were to bet on it because he has not been a good hitter

55:15threat as major league career. But I appreciate a guy who goes down to work. It doesn't just take the ball home and and and mope around. I appreciate a guy who goes down there and gets to work and understands, Hey, this team can need me at any moment. Some guys slides to the base and they need me some guys rolls his ankle and they'll need me. Some guys get sick. They'll need me. I appreciate that. That's that that is what you want from a ball player playing second base, playing third base. Yeah, Aspen vodka player of the series Anthony Volpe big grand slam. I appreciate what he's done from a from a from just like a work standpoint. Like I I respect it. This is not just about this not about the ball player at this point is about the person. What's in between the years and our respect it. Sam, again, anything else you want to add before we do the series preview? Yeah, I mean, pretty rocks are from vault. I mean, a lot of credit. I feel like a lot of us were kind of dogging on him, especially for his later performances. And it was kind of time to cut bait and set him down and see what he had. You know, I feel like we see it with a lot of players that get sent down a major league baseball. They get sent down in triple A. You don't want to make the

56:15improvements. You don't want to learn the new positions. We saw him at second base. We saw him at third base during this triple A stint and comes back up makes the immediate impact tonight. I'm excited to see how the next one is at nine days go for him while jazz is still in the injured list. Let's see if he can make a legitimate impact on this roster. Maybe he could stay up Ryan. It's I'm really curious to see how he performs over the next nine days. And if he plays well enough to be able to stick with this major league roster outside of that, you should have to show me more. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree. I agree. Let's get into the series preview. Obviously Friday, a very emotional day for New York City. You know, it's a tough a tough day for the city. But I think again, what it does is it provides an opportunity for everyone to come together and and you know, reflect on a tough time. Obviously, our hearts go out to all the families affected by the events 25 years ago. You never forget it. And these two teams are going to play baseball in I think what will be a again, it's obviously about the like these games matter for

57:17the Yankees, but for sure, I think they'll be a little bit more going into it tomorrow than just about the baseball. But let's let's do our series preview. It's no one McLean versus calls for Don tomorrow night. Garrett Colvers is sack Thorin on Saturday and then Camus Lover versus Christian's got on Sunday. That's been playing better baseball lately. They just swept the Marlins. They've gotten to 10 games under 500, which like on the surface sounds like I'm just sitting here and being in a hole, but I'm not they've played really bad baseball this year. Yeah, no, and they've flipped the. I didn't know. That was a horrible snap. Flip the switch. Juan Soto's back in the line up. They're hitting Lindor's been hitting lately. The meds always play the Yankees tough. I don't think we've won a subway series since 2017. I think is the number. And we have to sweep the meds to win this one. And if we take two out three, we split. So I'm not keeping score that. I just care that they win the beeping series that they can stay in this division race. Sam, how's this weekend going to go for the Yankees? Watch Soto coming home. You and I will actually be in the building Saturday, which is going to be an absolute blast. We're going to be sitting there cheering

58:22on Wantsosso for the New York metropolitan's the entire Saturday afternoon. I'm totally kidding. I will probably chuck a beer at him. I am joking as well with that this weekend. I liked him to lose tomorrow night. The clean stuff out. He's been incredible as of late. But I liked him to win Saturday and I like him to win Sunday. Obviously you win all paper with the pitching matchups. But like you mentioned, Ryan, the meds always seem to play the Yankees incredibly tough. I think there's going to be a lot of emotions that are pumped into the series as well. The Yankees are obviously trying to stay in this American league East race. So they need to win the series. It's very ideal if they can sweep this series. Do I expect them to sweep this series? Absolutely not because I think the clean will be awesome and we'll shove tomorrow night at Yankees stadium. So I think they take two out of three here. I think they win Saturday, Sunday and we kind of roll on from there. Hopefully the rage drop one as well this weekend so you could state even at three games. That's what it is. Right? So yeah, we'll move from that. I like Saturday, Sunday for the Yankees this weekend. I think I'm going to go two or three as well, but I'm going to flip the days. I think they win

59:23Friday, lose Saturday, win Sunday. Really? A hole is bad against the meds. He's been really bad against the meds in his career. A lot of that was 24 and 24. They stuck it to him, but I know in 21, he had a start against them. That didn't go too well. That was an ESPN. That was a gross. Yeah. Oh, man, that was gross. Yeah, like bomb one often. Fortin isn't like a great starter, but he's left handed, which forces you to throw out your B lineup, which I think is tough. Also, he's like a crafty lefty, like kind of any given day could just kind of rack up a bunch of ground balls. Really tough on lefties, which is again, like a really bad omin for the Yankees, and he's really bad against righties, which is a good omin for like Paul Goldschmidt. But right. That's Paul Goldschmidt. I will say Aaron Judge sitting home run on Saturday. He's sitting home run on Saturday against that. And then Sunday, I just think the Yankees have the pitching advantage. I just think that Schletters considerably better than Christian Scott. And you know, Thorin is a bad matchup for the Yankees because he forces them to throw a bunch of

1:00:25righties and their righties aren't as good as their lefties. Scott isn't even split sky, but Scott is a guy who hasn't pitched super deep into the games. He's a post DJS guy. That's a day where like if you beat up one of McLean or Thorin, you really put the Mets in a weird spot where they've got a lean on their bullpen a good bit. And maybe they're just not as prepared for that Sunday game or not as well equipped. They're also trying to like figure out what the 2027 Mets are going to look like and are going to prioritize like Kodai Seng is going to close games and Kodai Seng is look good as a closer, but it's not the same caliber of closer as an elite level closer. Their bullpen is in a weird spot. They gave up like 14 months of the Marlins this weekend. I think the Yankees will hit in this series, but I do think one of these three guys, and I think I'm looking at one of her down our coal are going to have a tough one. I think that is what it kind of goes. One guy gets bombed. The Yankees gets the other two guys. And I do think they get the McLean because McLean is a guy who does struggle a little bit against lefties. But when he's on,

1:01:25the issue with McLean is that if he's just spotting the sinker in sweeper all day and he might be amped up for that game, he's just kind of impossible to beat. Very much like he's like if Will Warren was 20% better at pitching. Is that makes sense? Yeah. It's very similar. We don't get dev this weekend, right? No, I think he's still hurt. He's still hurt. And like that match up for the Yankees. Like definitely was a fastball change of guy. That's also far from actually. Yeah. Yeah. It's objectively a terrible matchup. They've hit though. The meds have really hit as of late. They haven't had a good offensive season, but they've hit as of late. And like, you know, with anything you want to the meds have been hot lately. And that's like where I kind of look and go. I think on paper, if you were just telling me a generic 10 under team, I'd be like, Hey, you got to sleep. But I'm going to just settle for two out of three because they don't beat the meds usually. They just don't. You know, it sucks. Is you predicting them the

1:02:26loose Saturday? Yeah, we're going to be there. Go to the match, bro. Look, it's not that I it's not that I want them to lose the day we're going. I just ain't like, you know what's tough is when so when I go, they win. When you go, they lose. They had a good, they had a nice little stretch this year. I went to a game that they lost. We went to that game. What am I talking about? We both went to that game, right? No game. What game we go to recently went to I went. No, I went to a game recently. I went to that new exhaust. It's game where hedrick blew up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The point I was going to make was early in this year. I was on a really good run. We went to the home opener. We won. Then the A's game we lost. But then I went to that angels game in April. We won. It was a good game where we got where a rhymic man hit like an opposite field three run. Yeah, Dylan Seas. And they won that one. So I think I'm three and two. So we're playing for 500 or better. We're playing for for four and two or three and three. These are the most games I've

1:03:30gone to in quite some time. Not because I don't like going to the Ake games. I just don't have the time. I mean, you know, I don't know if people know this are our jobs or the Ake games. Right? So yeah, we're yeah, we're on every one of these games. So like if it's it's tough for us to be able to sneak away. Like I haven't been there in two months. First time you and I aren't clipping a game to like one of us are clipping a game literally your home. I'm obsessed. It was an X fest. An X fest. We had one of those days. I think we didn't click. Yes. Correct. Shut up, Brady. We're going to link up with the whole six. Yeah, the whole home opener. But yeah, dude, I've been there in two months. Like I'm I think the last time I went was a band. Like with my brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was even like when I was up for a fanatic stress. We wanted to go. But it was it rained out on Saturday night. Yeah. So I was like, why are we? I'll be honest. That rocked. We went we went to a bar. They were telling you that they actually charging me the full amount. Like I checked my credit. Uh, yeah, they ended up

1:04:31the full amount for our tab. What tab? I will remember we the the bar we went to they they like undercharged us. Yeah, they corrected it. They corrected it. Yeah, I forget. I didn't know. I was just checking like to make you know, I always check my payments. Everything. And I saw like, what the hell is this? And I was like, Oh, wait, yeah, that that's a damn. They got you. A beer. They're see. Yes. So they definitely like they 100% so for context guys, mean Ryan ran up a tab at this bar. Yeah. Like literally right in the middle time square, honestly. Great. And the time that we got back, I mean, what do we do? Like we got like appetizers. We got full entrees like what? Like we were starving and a couple of things. I did a friendship. Yeah. And we got the tab and it was end of I covered the tabs the entire weekend. Right? Yeah. And I because I'm I'm snagging. I'm just paying for whatever I don't care. Ryan was like, you got to stop. I'm paying for this one. Like, all right. Cool. Whatever. Sounds good. Ryan gets his

1:05:33tab back. There's two beers on it. That's it. None of our food none of the other beers like nothing like that. It was like, it was like 20 bucks. Yeah. You have like actual that tab. So Ryan gets a $20 tab. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, it's ridiculous. So this is what he's talking about. They ended up charging him for the entirety of the tab. I was unaware of that. That's crazy. I mean, I don't think it's I think the crazier part is the $20 tab. That that I mean, that was well, they like, they shift changed. So it was like, yeah. Other dude and he gave us the brand new tab. The one with like two beers and we're like, oh, yeah. Shit dude. Well, you know, I don't have the living guilt anymore. That's the only reason I'm talking about this really. We can go back there. Yeah, we can go back there. I don't think they had any ill will towards us. I think it was just not as mistaken. Now they love this up in there. Dude, we were very nice. It was a good time. Yeah. Any who any thoughts you got here, Sam? A lot of you guys just expect clocking out. So you guys on Saturday at Big Jank. Yeah, I'm going to go to bed. Me too. We're recording this at

1:06:3412 51 in the morning. Yeah, it's all right. My bed is right there. It's staring at me and I'm I'm going to be intimately introduced to my that sound so weird. Oh my god. Uh, like, subscribe to notification bell. Fireside Yankees. Yeah. Yeah. Fireside Yankees. Goodbye, everybody. Have a good night.