Hall of Fame weekend & only 1/3 of the season is left! Ep. 718 - 7.28.26

Hall of Fame induction ceremony is complete. The three newest members of the Hall of Fame are in. And I suppose we should talk about it. We are almost Cooperstown after all. They made it all the way. So it's now Hall of Fame induction weekend here. Well, it's over now, and we have our three newest members of the Hall of Fame, all deserving, I think we would both say. And Jeff Kent, Carlos Beltran, and Andrew Jones.

And it was interesting as a Met fan this weekend 'cause we were pretty connected to two of these guys, which doesn't happen too often, including one going in wearing a Met hat, which is the first at least for them since Mike Piazza. And only only Tom Siever's the only other Met to go in or or a player to go in wearing a Met cap. And yeah, I mean Beltran, I I think we talked about it before the podcast.

didn't play that many years in New York. It is actually kinda interesting look at on looking at all of these guys because they were both all three of them were guys that played for a lot of teams. I think Jones less so mostly just because he had the bulk of his career and his productivity with the Braves. But Kent and Beltran, they never I I think Kent played the most years for the Giants at five or six. And Beltran spit split six years between the Mets and the Royals each.

So they played lots of seasons, but they played lots of seasons for lots of teams. A lot of other teams, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, their speeches, as usual, well they were actually very good speeches. I I did listen to them and and I thought they all were very, you know, gracious and and and talked about their particular role and and and on the teams as they came up and b to become Hall of Fame players. And I think everybody who's in the Hall of Fame always says

When I was growing up, I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame. Right? Because you all you thought about is getting to the major leagues if you could, and that was like the biggest dream you could have to think about being in the major leagues and going to the Hall of Fame. It's a bit presumptuous. Exactly at that point. So I guess that's not that surprising. and that comes on the heels of of of All Star Week or or after All Star Week. So, you know, we've gotten to this point in the season. We are now

Almost Coooperstown (02:01.822)
as this is dropping about two thirds of the way through the twenty twenty six baseball season. It is interesting how, you know, the season sort of feels slow up until July, but then when you look at July every year, so many things happen in the world of baseball July because you have the Hall of you have the world you have the All Star game into the Hall of Fame induction, into the trading deadline. So you have really the busiest month of the year in baseball, kind of right after the halfway point.

And so that this really feels like July kick starts the season and now once you're, you know, a week or two into August, you're not thinking about if people are making playoffs. You're thinking about what's the playoff picture looking like. Well, and and you said the trading deadline, I think that's that's gonna be the mode of this particular week, right? Because you know, the a week from today it'll be the day after when this drops on a Tuesday and then drop the next Tuesday the fourth. The the trading deadline is August third.

And I am actually a little surprised that there has been so little dealing so far. There was a big there I you know people are priming for it 'cause I'm online last night and there was a very minor trade that got made last night. But as soon as it came out Somebody's trading it was blasted out everywhere 'cause I I I can't even remember who ended up getting traded last night. That's that it would not that it was insignificant, but it was not any but it was not two players people would be like, wow, these guys are moving, which we expect to see this deadline with the number of teams that are in the race.

So I would expect th over this weekend especially. I think teams are pro there's a lot of teams that are on the periphery. You know, if you're the Baltimore Orioles, you're just close enough that you can convince yourself that you're in it. Right, right. If you don't ha if you have a decent week. If you have a decent week. That is true. Recent history bias is gonna push you one way or the other possibly. Right, right. Whereas if you're the Toronto, you could be a team like the Red Sox who have been on this amazing streak right now. You go crashing back down to five hundred over the next four or five days.

And all a sudden you're just like, wait, are we really gonna kinda do something here to make the playoffs? Like or is that a desp you know, you you start second guessing yourself. I think, you know, you and and you mentioned the blue jays and and you know, we both liked them. I liked them. I thought they were gonna really have a good season, they have not, and for a whole bunch of reasons, including Kevin Gaussman not being very good this year, which is something I don't think we we counted on happening. and, you know, I I I just

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don't know that this is the season to go all in in a season that Vladdy Junior is not having a good season and to think that's all gonna turn around and they're gonna climb over all those other teams in the American League East, much less be one of the playoff teams and are they gonna be you know the reason they think they can do it is I think they feel they have enough pitching on the starting side of the of the equation

To compete and their bullpen is better than it was last year with Louis Varland. I think it's actually weirdly interesting that as much as people have been talking about this is going to be such a buyer's deadline, I wonder if because basically every team has been so uncertain in what they are up until this point, and every team has been so shaky and inconsistent that our team's gonna be refrained from making moves because they don't know what they are. So it's like, wait, do we really want to mortgage a future when we're not sure what we are right now?

Let's not trade away a bunch of resources and bring in a guy. Let's just hold Pat and see how it shakes out and you know, we might be better in the future for that kind of move 'cause this might be or e even if we make those moves, is it enough to beat the Dodgers in the postseason? Well, forget about I think I think your your goal one is to get to the World Series and it's different and you just said it. Like, you know, in the National League, I think it's different for you going, Okay, you have to say to yourself, if we make all these changes, do we have a legitimate chance

To to to compete with the Dodgers. Forget about beating them. It also depends on what team you are, because I think if you're a team like the Pirates, making a move at the deadline to make sure you make the postseason as the Pirates makes a lot more sense because of who they are as an organization. How long they haven't done that. Exactly. Whereas if you're a team that's on the outside like the Padres, who have already made a zillion moves to make the postseason, who's made the postseason a bunch in the last few years, does it really make sense to go yet even more all in at

five hundred their pitching is not gonna hold up and they know it. And they know it. So they might not do something the same way other teams w would. I think and I think the American league teams are more likely to make a move. Yes, I agree. Because you're pretty much thinking if we make the world if we make the playoffs, we could make the world seriously chance. I mean and and I think because the Yankees have looked more vulnerable, obviously still without Aaron Judge

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and and even though they're in first place, excuse me, they're in they're just behind the race by a couple of games, I think most people would say they expect the Yankees to get there in the end in the season. But they're not invincible. And I think if you're in the other teams in the league, the Mariners or or the the even the Tigers who are still flirting with do we trade Harris Google or do we not? Right. There's so many things that you so I think that that plays out a really interesting thing where I think the national league you could see less movement in because

The teams at the top of the divisions are so kind of squis you know, solidly there at this point that i i you're the lesser teams that are trying to make the moves. And if you're the Cardinals, are you really gonna make a move? No, I I I I no the Marlins, are you gonna try and make a move to save your season at this point when you're in the midst of a twelve game losing streak? Yes, yeah. That is the longest losing streak in Marlin history. and you know, th they were the best team in baseball if in June.

Uh-huh, and and they are the worst team in baseball in July, it looks like right now. And they're starting tonight in the against Zach Wheeler and the Phillies, so that could very easily go to thirteen games. And how weird is it? The NL East has had three different teams this season if that had ten plus game losing streaks. No team, by the way, and the Mets took took this out of play early in this year and in in I think it was in April when they had the twelve game losing streak. No team has ever made the playoffs or postseason having a twelve game losing streak. So it's good to get that out of the way in April. Right. So that you know you're not gonna make it.

We're having a great season up until this point. Right. Now, the Phillies are gonna make the postseason, but I think they only lost 10 in a row. They did not lose 12. They didn't lose 12, right? So that that they saved themselves then. The Phillies, the Brewers, the Cubs, the Dodgers, the Braves. That's it. Yep, those that's your playoffs. And realistically, it's

Do the Braves have a shot at beating the Dodgers in a series? You know, if if if guys you never know when you get to the playoffs who's injured, who's gonna be. The the the Braves are good enough. I the Dodgers at full strength would be hard for anybody to beat. Right, right. But you know, at the same time we did just w watch the Dodgers lose a game to the Mets. They can lose a game. And all that. So yeah, and you know, we we talked about the you know the fact that the guys are coming back and and the Yankees got back Max Freed last week and and he pitched okay and

Almost Coooperstown (08:31.696)
I I said before I think they're in pretty good shape when they when they basically don't have to wait for Rodon to come back and he's only gonna be their number four or five pitcher when he does because Ryan Weathers looks like he's kind of slid into the number four. Schlittler

Cole, Max Fried, that that's a team you can go to war with in the playoffs. Right, right. That's a And that's why we we we've talked about the Yankees so much in the the the American League, just because that rotation seems to be leaps and bounds better than anything other than what would happen maybe in Detroit if you both had Scuba and Valdez. Valdez has been bad. Right. So he Scuba's been amazing and and and I and and I guess the consensus is that that Scuba will be traded this week because they don't want to end up empty handed. Right. That's what I'm hearing. And I think when you're fifteen

fifty six and you're not in the midst of a good season, trading him away is a lot easier, but I think that's still gonna go over like a b you know I can s like a lead balloon. I can see the I can see the Tigers going, you know, we're we're

Actually got a pretty good heading team now. And now we got Scuba back. it's it's Valdez who's kind of killed us because he was supposed to be the anchor when Scoo Scuba wasn't hurt and he hasn't been and all that. Do we really think we have enough? So if they got to the playoffs, would Casey Myes, a healthy Valdez and Scuba, be enough with that hitting? They could talk themselves into that. Right, exactly. They could talk themselves into that. And then also if you what will make your f what will piss off your fan base more?

Failing to get a return from Scoobyl if you lose him in free agency or going on trying to make the playoffs with him and then actually trying to resign him and then still like if you gave him your best effort, the fans are like, Okay, yeah, you backed up a truck to him. Is it your fault the Dodgers offered him the moon? Like and too many people are are are are saying that the Dodgers are gonna get him. At the at the trading deadline. The Dodgers are somehow

Almost Coooperstown (10:16.5)
Because it just sounds evil, you know, that that's it sounds like something they would do. Like, you know what? Let's just get Scoobyl too. Yeah, let's have Google. Yeah. That means another team can't have him. So and Garrett Crochet, who was the other s marquee lefty, I'd say, in the American League, was supposed to be a candidate for the Cy Young Award in the American League, has been hurt now. and w what started as just, you know, gonna miss a couple of starts, has turned into missing a month and a half, and now I think there's some question as to whether he's gonna pitch it all in the regular season. And I think you're gonna

See a lot of this with players or the rest of the season, really, because the Red Sox are still at the you know outside looking in at the playoffs, but

You're gonna see this with guys like Soto. you know, all the guys that have the the these lingering injuries, are they gonna come back? 'Cause Soto came out to that today, I'm a young guy, I'm gonna come back, you know, I'm coming back this season. He's already talking about all the time. 'We we talked about this yesterday, so Soto has he injured the other calf. Mm-hmm. Okay, so he injured his his I guess his left calf and now it's his rice calf and right calf and it wasn't as bad as Lindors, but it's worse than the one he had last time. This is ridiculous. And and so the question is if he's got a four to six weeks injury and we're basically in late July, almost August, we're talking about September.

Why? Right, right, well, because Ju Soto play for a team that's going to be f 30 games out of recover quickly and he's going to take it day to day. Sorry.

I wanted to do my weekly Jacob Mrs. Riowski report because on Sunday he became the first pitcher in a hundred and five years to strike out twelve of the first thirteen hitters in the game. This guy is is ha you know, it's funny 'cause Christopher Sanchez is supposedly the clubhouse leader for the Cy Young in the National League.

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Because he's had an amazing season and I and I I want to acknowledge that. But I don't think I've seen anything like Jacob Mysarowski in in I can't remember a guy being like this. He is approaching like he's putting himself on an arc that's gonna surpass where Scoobyl was and where Skeens is. Like that's the level he's entering of. Like, is he better than Skeens? Right, he's like like doing Bob Gibson-like stuff from 1968. You know, and and so I I you know, and they keep saying, how is he gonna keep throwing 104 all the way through the playoffs? And he's he's six foot seven.

You know, and and he's kind of a beanpole, but so far, he looks solid as a rock and and doesn't look like he's he's gonna stop this particular season. And and they better ride this horse while they can, right? While he's still young and healthy, because y you think somewhere along the line when you throw a hundred and four for a few years, something's gonna have to give. Well, and that's what terrifies you, because you can the guy can be great, a guy can be dominant, and then all of a sudden, like tonight in Philadelphia, where Zach Wheeler leaves the game after three innings just ten minutes ago.

He leaves the game. Something was bothering him all night. He threw a ninety-one mile an hour sinker in the cird. He's all in the dugout, done for the night. Wow.

So the Philadelphia Phillies might be on the market for the starting. Right. That's on the basis of where Zach Wheeler is. Right, right. That completely changes. And you're that's a team that suddenly that might not have been thinking about, hey, we need a starting pitcher, is now like, we need a starting pitcher and fast. Yeah, and I think the Phillies are sort of in that situation where they did a nice job coming back from the dreadful start, like we said. And and you know, this is the last run for this group, although I said that last year, and I didn't think they should have ran it back, and they did, and it's worked out mostly.

and and as much of that is having Christopher Sanchez have such a great year. But I, you know, this is it, man. The Rio Moltul, you know, Trey Turner, you know, these guys that are getting older. And you're and you're seeing in, you know, maybe not Turner, but but you're just seeing across I mean Turner's looked old. He's still he's only 32 or something. He's not been good this year. But I mean, you're just seeing guys across the line, the older players, they were great to start the year, but now the injuries are starting to crop up because

Almost Coooperstown (14:13.06)
All of a sudden, Cody Bellinger, grade two hamstring out four to six weeks. Well, he's had to carry the Yankees on his back for a while. And now he is down. So it's like that the Yankees, it just feels like this out sort of year where it's is weird that they seem so inevitable because everything about the season should point to it being a cursed season due to injury, but they kind of just keep on plucking along like it's no problem for them. Yeah, yeah. And and nobody does it like the Dodgers do, who's like, you know, guys get hurt. They come in and out of the line on that's all we do is keep winning. This guy isn't gonna play. that's okay. We'll we'll get him back.

When he's ready to play. And you know, the Dodgers seem to work everything to be that healthy team at the end of October when the playoffs start. With that's all we're trying to do is get into position. And they do it better than any team. And I do think it's interesting that you know we look at teams, and we talked about so much before the you know in the offseason about elevating the ball and fly ball rate. And then you look at the Brewers, first place 66 wins, you know, second most wins in the majors, highest ground ball rate in the major leagues as an offense. So and they they're not up.

they're not a super power hitting team. They only got four guys on their team that have more than ten home runs, but they have a very powerful offense so they score a bunch of runs regardless. And it's not like they're stealing bases everywhere. But

When the playoffs come, mm right? It becomes more about your ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark and that and the Brewers w And that's what I still have that same problem they've had for the last years. Bunch of years. Even when they lost that series to the Mets, 'cause that's what what I was saying all before the last postseason being like w when you play the small ball style of offense, it's really hard to win that way because

generating runs is har it is. It against the best pitching. It makes perfect sense. Because 'cause you're y y a any time the first when you're an offense that needs to generate runs by stringing together

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Any anywhere that first guy doesn't get on base. That just isn't it's a massive climb to score now. Meanwhile, a team like the Dodgers, it's like, yeah, okay, the first two guys struck out. third guy hit a home run. Yeah, that's a run. Yeah, yeah. And it might be, you know, Max Muncie. Yeah. Andy Paez, you know, you know, it could be any one of these many guys. And that's what happens in the playoffs you see sometimes. Now that doesn't mean the small ball teams can't win. We've seen them win. We've seen, you know, teams that you know the Diamondbacks that team that made the World Series a few years ago. And I'd say the Royals the is the emblem.

Right, exactly. That that's a team that won doing it, but even a team like I think like the the Diamondbacks from a few years ago, that's not a team that hit a ton. But they can get hot and that offense can power them forward. But it's just you it's real hard to do that. Yeah, yeah.

I I wanted to mention the athletics because we were enjoying the story. That was the athletics for the first coup couple of months of the season, and obviously they're not enjoying the story right now because they've lost twenty out of twenty three. I didn't realize it had gone that bad for the athletics. And the pitching is just I I think they have the worst run differential in all of major league baseball, the athletics. So and it's not like they don't score runs. What they can't stop is a cold when it when it comes to the givea they've given up almost six hundred runs. The only team you know, a team that's kind of close to them is the National.

Who are basically the better version of the athletics? The same thing that they can score. They score like nobody. They're the best offense in baseball. The problem is they give up a zillion runs, and so even in the games where they score a bunch, they still lose all the time. Another team that should not be in the buying mode. They should be in the hold and maybe they should just be in the hold mode because there's too many things wrong with that bullpen to fix, and trying to make moves to fix it doesn't make any sense. Like bringing what's the point of bringing in a premier reliever? It's like, look.

Look, we've got this beautiful statue on our sinking ship. And CJ Abrams, who's having the season of his life, 27 homers right now. He and James Wo James Wood might both hit 40 homers this year. But I there is talk about trading CJ Abrams, and he's had some difficulties in Washington in the past. And I guess they have somebody at the minor league level that they drafted that they have high hopes for that could play the position. and so he would bring a pretty good return for a team right now that needs that kind of offense. And that would be an interesting thing to do.

Almost Coooperstown (18:18.042)
That's a that's a premier guy on the market if he's a three hundred with almost thirty homers. There's a l there's very few teams that are looking at their shortstop saying, Yeah, we're fine. Well we got us better than that.

You know, you the the in the teams that are are saying that generally 'cause they have a guy that's being paid too much there to move around. Like the Mets would like, Yeah, we'd be interested in CJ Abrams, except wait, we have we have Francisco Lindor, we can't do we don't have room for two of them. a a couple of articles I've seen recently by my friend Jason Stark in the Athletic and and the the one that I saw this morning was that Joey Vado, and you might have seen last night, he did the game on Sunday night on for the first time his broadcast debut on NBC. It was great. And and he was it was

Great 'cause Vado's just great. but what I thought was most interesting, he noted that he had never been to Cooperstown.

And and and and and and and you know, you think, well, you know, is he a young yeah, is he a guy who doesn't care? Like the you know, the younger players don't know because Jason Stark wrote another article just about how he thinks that if you brought the young players to Cooperstown and let them walk in there, they'd have a different sense about the place than you do that if than if you've never been there. The history sort of drips all over you when you walk in there and and and the idea of what if you had the major league players and the owners and you had a meeting in the in Cooperstown, this is what you're protecting is what the sort of one of the underlying

thoughts were to sort of say see what how venerated this place is that that that feels like a very that's so f it's fan romantic of baseball. It is but the point is that I I I think that was a good point and I and I like that he made the point is that Vado didn't go there because he he just felt like you know I'm not ready to go there. And now I think maybe the first time he'll go there is when they induct him. And I'm sure that's what a lot of players want. They're especially if you're a guy that could make it to have your first time being at the Hall of Fame being

Almost Coooperstown (20:06.801)
Walking among peers is probably a very cool moment. So I imagine a lot of players are like, I wouldn't be mind being a part of that. And I did think it was interesting. The two my two favorite moments from Vado's broadcast last night were one, when in the beginning of the game, then now the people on the broadcast were trying to get him to comment on the Brighthe Harper like toothpaste video. And Harper's like, and Vado was just like, I'm I'm watching the game. I don't know what you're talking about. Had no interest in whatever like general interest stuff. He wanted to watch baseball because then when they went to him the seventh inning, I when they were young.

Yank Lanky left-hander up was pitching to Schwarber. He had such an interesting description talking about what it's like facing a sidearming lefty that's pitching from the first base side as a lefty. He's like, listen, you can't change your swing. You just have to train, you just have to try and resist the fact that the ball is coming from a weird from behind you. Right. It's gonna start behind you, and you've got a sliver of time to try and hit it. But Schwarber is a guy that can hit it because he can turn on the inside pitch really well in a tight area. He's tall, he's talking about how he can turn on the ball in a phone booth, but he's like, that's what you

Almost Coooperstown (21:30.88)
And and you you mentioned left handed is throwing sidearm and and so I wanted to talk a little bit about Chris Sale because that was another guy that was talked about this week. I think Stark talked about, you know, the fact that Sale is, you know, you know, kinda closing in on the Hall of Fame. And I and I went back at him like, I think he's already a Hall of Famer. Let's let's let's talk about Chris Sale. I said I didn't think he wa before the season when I didn't and I'm not gonna write about this this week, I I did we did our tier, I did my tiers. I had him in the in the third tier. I don't know what I was thinking, Chris Sale. Because, you know, it didn't look like he was gonna

gonna get to you know some of the marks you need to get to the the traditional marks. Not necessarily the wins. He's he's he's probably not gonna get two hundred wins, so he's only got a hundred and fifty. and all that. But he is got now twenty seven hundred strikeouts, I think.

So so now I th he's gonna get three thousand. I didn't think he was gonna get there. He pr pr provided everything stays the same, he'll get there. He's gonna get the three thousand and he has the seventh lowest whip in the history of major league baseball. That's a holiday. That's that's that's and when 'cause we're what we're forgetting is that he's gonna retire a year or two after all these other guys. And after them competing with him. Right. That's gonna be a huge benefit to him that he's 'cause he he's definitely a tier below the Scherzers and the Kershaws and the Verlanders of the world. But

I don't

Only because when you look at the the summation of their career I I I I I I I think their postseason resumes that's not his fault that he he he wasn't on you know such great teams until he you know came over to the Braves. he's also seventh all time in career ten strikeout performances. Let me just give you the top six for a second. Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Mac Scherzer, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax. Well look there's that shirt.

Almost Coooperstown (23:16.573)
I mean those two stats alone, whip and strikeouts, Hall of Famer. Exactly, exactly. But that you're just kind of reinforcing my mind how good Scherzer and Verlander was and Kershaw. Like that that's the only problem for for Sale is that like, your competition as as Chris Sale is that like and that's probably his biggest issue. Is like you don't ever get to be the greatest lefty of this generation because unfortunately you pitched at the same time as Kershaw. But he's done stuff that they haven't, and I don't think he gets enough credit because he doesn't have the counting stats to the same

degree that those guys. And he didn't he didn't have the the wins. And and Hershaw he was injured a lot, but I don't think that's really, you know that's not the story of his career anymore. And now he's pitched enough well you can't look you can look at the breadth of his career and be like, okay, yeah, he missed some seasons due to injury, but all that kept him d from doing is maybe being in the category of those other guys. Because if he doesn't lose those couple years of injury, he probably has the counting stats of the Verlanders and the Scherzers. So so how about you? Would you have any interesting angle story for the week?

Met fans don't despair. Right now A A G Ewing has more war than Rock.

Yeah, just saying. But right, and if you wanted an idea because you were talking about Trey Turner, who do you think has more war this year? Francisco Lindor or Trey Turner? I guess it's gonna be Lindor, which is crazy. Yeah. That's how bad Trey Turner has been. He's got point seven war on this season. And so I think it's r just really interesting when you look at like the the war breakdowns by team. There there was a great thing you can go online and kind of find, you know, looking at the war leader for team by position. It's actually really interesting when you look at the Mets because

They're almost never in last at any position across the field, except for like second base and first base. They're actually doing pretty well across the board for their players. So you're like, how is my team that bad? And it's interesting also seeing some of the guys that are having years out there that people just like aren't aware of. Like, by the way, every we were just talking about how good CJ Abrams is Abrams is. And yeah, his team is having a terrible run right now. But if you don't know who Otto Lopez is as a baseball fan, you are missing out. The guy is an unbelievable player. And he was picked up for next.

Almost Coooperstown (25:22.223)
To nothing from the Giants by the Marlins and has been leading the league and hitting the National League for for a lot of years. And he's been great. Jeremy Pena has been great as well for the Astros, even though the Astros there's a team that should be packing it in too. And this is not the year for them to do that, and they they don't have enough starting pitching to get there. So is this a year where we could see a last place team have an NVP? It's possible. It's happened before. Right. It's just because you look at the American League and if it's Bobby Witt, this is a year you could give it to him. That's the thing. He you you kind of felt like he should have had it one of the last couple years, and it's like, you just had the misfortune of having to go up against an Aaron Judge like all time major league season. Here, have sort of a pity N V P where we could give it to you this year. You were great. And like who you could Alvarez is really the only other guy that you can Well, and and and he is he is legit, and by the way, they're not that much far ahead of last place themselves. Witt is on the Wit Jr. was on the injured list, so that

That could impact his chances as well. And if Alvarez wins the triple crowd, it's kinda hard not to give a guy that wins the triple crowd the end.

Yeah. well we've got, you know, I guess we're gonna have a lot to talk about, which is not very much at the moment in terms of who's going where or what's gonna happen. You're gonna know which teams made the decision that they're they're they're not gonna try to compete this year and which teams think they have a chance in just six short days.