Our MLB playoffs predictions & award winners - Ep. 706 3.30.26

The first series of the 2026 MLB season is in the books for almost every team. still have maybe one or two finishing up and we have the Sunday night game, but for most teams it's in here and it's been a rookie coming out party as we've seen tons of guys perform way better than expected. Should be an exciting rookie of the year race. It's year end award picks. It's the first week in baseball. It's this week in baseball.

And so here we are. We've finished the first series in baseball. The Mets almost complete a second late inning comeback, I guess. Yeah, well, because they were down ⁓ in the game on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah. So you just want to start the first three games of the year and you want you don't want to be swept like the Giants were like the Diamondbacks were in the athletics. ⁓ You're certainly happy to sleep. But going to in one or one and two in those games, you're fine.

So, you know, you don't want to be windless. You don't you don't don't want to go in the tank, obviously. I think in terms of importance, the second series might be more important in terms of your overall record than the first series because going 0 and 6 to start off the season, if you're the Giants, that could put you into a hole you can't ever really recover from. Right. Right. And I was lucky enough to go to the Met opener on Thursday at City Field.

And it was 74 degrees. mean, I've gone to lots and lots and lots of opening days. One of the nicest weather days. Maybe it's the nicest, but it was it was really good. And then the Mets played in 40 degrees on Saturday. So the teams and the players, the pitchers and all those have all this adjustment to do for the weather that isn't the same in the middle of the season when you're probably trying to deal with heat more than anything else. It's funny because the team you are.

in April in terms of how you play might not be the team that you are the rest of the season. Unfortunately, the record still counts. Yeah. Yeah. So games count as much as in. So you take the whole month to figure it out. You know, it could be too late for your team. Even as a player, you can have a disastrous April and still recover like we've seen from Francisco Lindor a whole bunch. So we're going to as you said, we're going to do our award picks for the major award.

We don't pick Silver Slugger. No, no, we're talking MVP, Cy Young, probably Rookie of the Year, of the Year, stuff like that. But we also are going to actually pick the playoff teams. So why we just do that now? Because we didn't do that last week in our podcast. did. We said the order of finish. We said the order of finish. So who's going to be in the playoffs? Right. Right. Well, that still informs that gives up three of our playoff teams immediately. if I recall correctly, you had the Yankees.

And you had the Tigers and the Tigers and the Mariners and I had the Mariners and the Tigers. So no difference there. And I had the Mets and you had the Phillies in the. So we only had one team different. Yes. So now who are your wild card teams in the American League? The we the Yankees. Mm No, no, that's your division champion. No, the Blue Jays are my division. OK, so you had the same as me. Yeah, I forgot. I you had the Yankees. No, no, I had the Blue Jays as my Yankees. Yes. Yankees would be the Royals. OK. And then.

The last one I had was the Orioles. Okay, so Yankees Orioles, so you're leaving out the Red Sox I'm leaving out the Red Sox. Okay, and I am going to in the American leagues I'll do it the same time as you I'm going to go with the Yankees the Orioles and the Reds So, you know, I was going to take out the Orioles and put the Royals in as well You're taking out that you're taking out the Orioles and putting in the Red Sox are for the Royals there Okay, how about in the National League the National League? have the Phillies and the Mets coming out of the NL East. I have the Cubs

and the Brewers once again coming out of the NL Central. I've I've I've because I had that. And then I'm going to have the pick the Dodgers and the Pads. The Padres. Wow. So you got one from each division, one from each of it. I like I love I would love to see a Pirates playoff thing in this first series. Notwithstanding, I just I don't look at that roster and see a playoff roster right now. That is a team that a midseason trade acquisition could change things for me and Connor Griffin.

Having watched them play three games and they scored seven runs on Thursday against the Mets, even though they lost. ⁓ They just don't really have, once you get past the top three guys in their order, they don't have guys that scare you and they need to be more scary if they're going to be an actual playoff team. I'm going to pick all three, the three teams in the National League East, the Phillies, the Braves. so those three teams. I'm going to pick the. ⁓ I'm going to pick the.

I hadn't thought about this, right? who is... I'm not gonna pick the Pirates. What do you haven't thought about this? I haven't. I picked the Giants, and so who would I pick between the Giants and the... I'll pick the Giants as my other wild card team, even though they got off to a pretty only got the Cubs out of the Central, and you've got the Giants out of the other team of the West. Okay. Yeah, yeah. A bold pick, but I just don't see... I just don't feel the Brewers this year, even though they got off to another great start by scoring

I think they lost the game on Sunday finally, but they get offense from guys you don't expect. that could be a rough pick there. So anyway, all right, so let's go back and just talk a little bit about ⁓ some news from the week. ⁓

I noticed that Mizorowski and you might have seen that Jacob Mizorowski he is ⁓ looking to bid for the Cy Young Award this year and I think he struck out ⁓ with the bullpen they struck out 20 guys I think he had you 11 strikeouts on opening day so announcing himself as a guy so that that obviously is what we talked about the Brewers needing if they're going to compete is he has to be a Cy Young candidate I you said that last time. Right right and then that hopeful that what I'm seeing here for a lot of teams this is something we're talking about here is that when you look at

teams. If you're going to be a team we're going to be talking about as a World Series contender, you really need to have a guy in your rotation that you can at least claim can be a Cy Young candidate. He doesn't have to necessarily be a Cy Young candidate in a given year because that's pretty volatile. The same way you need a guy in your lineup who is a legitimate MVP candidate season. Not like, ⁓ in theory, he could be an MVP candidate, but like he is an MVP candidate some seasons. I think if you don't have

those two things on your roster. You're not really a world series contender. And if you only have one of them, it just makes it really hard. have a team like the guardians who you look at, go, well, have an MVP guy, but do they really have ⁓ a picture like that? Well, and it's funny because you took about the tigers. I'd say the only MVP candidate I've seen the tigers is Derek Scoob. Right. And that makes it really hard. I love the tigers, but it's hard to see them as a picture of the MVP to win the world series. And that's why you look at a team like the Yankees and you go, okay, yeah.

Garrett Cole Max Fried and Aaron Judge. Okay, if you look at the Blue Jays, Treja Savage and Vladimir Guerrero. Okay. It's interesting with the Mariners because they just don't really have one guy that stands out above the rest as the pitcher, but the whole collective pitching staff is so good.

They have that Cal Raleigh guy, although he's gotten up to a little bit of slow start. auspicious start, some might say. But as I think you mentioned ⁓ earlier off air that, you know, he started last year really bad, too. So he didn't get a hit his first couple of games either. So I think that's one of the things we've seen here as we've started off the season. mean, Carson Bench hit a home run here for the Mets. That's the only hit he's gotten so far. no, no, you got another hit. You got another. I think I was one for seven at one point today. Yeah. Yeah. OK, maybe I'm wrong. Right. But rookies overall have had a

an

unbelievable start here in the opening day was crazy. Right. Open opening weekend, really. So I mean, Murakami chased a lot. You have all of these rookies that are up now up there towards the top of the major leagues for hitting because of the weeks they've put up. Right. You've got, you know, J.J. Westerholt, Holman and his first at bat. So did Chase DeLotter, who is tied for the major league lead in. He's got it going into. No, he's tied. He's got four. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Three but Murakami I think caught got up to three today because he hit he had to you're right and so guys another rookie right So we have a we have guys hitting home runs left and right today, which is just I mean so the rookies Akamoto I believe is how you pronounce He hit his first home run today for the the blue J So that's another rookie home run, so I think you're gonna see a lot of guys You know that are gonna be competing for you know Rookie of the year is gonna be

Everybody had seems like had pretty good start to the season right now Stewart had a good start to the season other than taking a shot off the arms Kevin McGonigal had four hits in his debut ⁓ And and I think he's gonna be asleep one of my sleeper picks possibly I think rookie of the year might be the most interesting race because it's kind of interesting with some of the other ones is right now You're just picking them with the rookie of year We've already seen some examples and it's gonna be a crazy one So let's talk a little bit about ABS because we've had three watched three or more games

We watched in other places not having the MLB network bugs me a little bit because I can't chuck it check it right now and our local system operator took it off the off the Hair cable, so I can't really see it but yeah, the the ABS has So far beef going into the Sunday games. I don't really know what happened today is the Batters were correct 46 % of the time the the pitchers were correct 25 % of the time saying pitchers should not challenge,

And the catchers were correct 64 % of the time. Overall, they have the best view. But the catchers were the ones doing the predominant amount of the challenging because I think the overall accuracy rate for the challenges was like 58, 59%. It was close to 60%. Overall, that team was getting it right. And so I think what that's telling me is that

full ABS is coming sooner rather than later. That's that's was my conclusion watching the games over the weekend going, you know, when the guys miss it and then the next thing is or they can't. lot of times we saw today when teams Pittsburgh had burned a couple of challenges so they couldn't easily challenge because they only had one left. And so there were some questionable pitches that, sure enough, when they went back and replayed it, it was a strike, but they didn't want to challenge it. And then the guy gets a hit. All of sudden, game changes. The whole game is different. Right. And I think so I think you're going to see it. And it was interesting. Another

that's thing that came out is that older umpires were getting their calls overturned at a much higher rate than the younger umpires, which makes sense. it was 69 % for 10 year plus umpires and 39 % for less than 10 year umpires getting over them. that is an argument for young eyes, I guess. Right. I'm not sure what it is. And like we said before the season, the umpires will get better because that's happened at the minor league. They always get better. They adjusted to what this ABS is and what they've got to do. What's a strike?

and all that, I expect them, they won't be perfect.

⁓ And as I keep saying, you know, I know that ABS isn't perfect and our guy Jason Stark went out and sort of pointed out how even if it's at its best, it's within, you know, a float zone of, know, a tiny little difference where you can't really exactly call it on a spot. You're never going to be able to get some kind of laser scientific But it's perfectly imperfect in that there's nobody's opinion being a part of it is what it is when it is every time. There's no situation. He's not tired. He didn't get dirt in his eyes.

You

get so the ball is where so I think that's why it'll come down to let's just accept the cause for where they went and argue about something else so I think I think it's been a Surprised me how much it was used actually I didn't think it was gonna be as prevalent in the games in the first weekend. So strange I just guys hate calls getting wrong. They were using this is the second they had a chance So and and you know major league baseball which the players are arguing is just edits at ACME and that would be going into a labor negotiation

trying to make sure that the umpires don't lock the umpires the the owners don't lock them out. ⁓ You know, there were five of the 15 games on Saturday that went to extra innings. And I noticed that they all were one run games even in extra innings after after and and so you look at eight seven games and seven six games and five four games. That's really but they're going 10 innings or 11 innings because of the extra runner it's sort of ending the game early. I think it's really great for fans that they're getting all these exciting contests. And we're not losing anything is my point.

not having the games go again 14 or 15. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I got to figure the whole extra inning debate had sort of been resolved at this point. I feel like it is and it isn't because the games kind of drag on and they're not as exciting as a 10 or 11 inning game that's decided by one run. right. Right. I'm more to say that, like, let's be honest, anybody that's still holding out there that we're going to go back to the old way of doing extra innings, you know, they would actually there was a time where I really thought, well, why do we keep doing this when we're not trying to shorten the

games but that's just a vestige that won't go away and it doesn't lead to it doesn't lead to better games it's not a better outcome nope the game is somehow not better because it is a quote-unquote more pure it is weird I was watching the game ⁓

far away yesterday. I was at the dinner and kind of peeking at the game. And all of a sudden I see it's a 10th inning and like, how do they get a runner on second base? I had forgotten for a second. yeah, they just get one. What's this guy doing there? Didn't nobody got a hit or anything. So, yeah, I think it was a, you know, a really good first weekend. We can talk for a moment about the disastrous Netflix opening game on Thursday. There was a Netflix broadcast and a baseball game apparently happened during it. So they'll get better and peak

Peacock

basically showed every they better get better. Peacock showed everybody how to do it the next night when they did their broadcast and NBC's broadcast. I'm right. Peacock was, you know, OK, this is how it's supposed to be. Right. Exactly. And that's and people just just broadcast the game. Just be quiet. Just just show us a baseball game. You've got good announcers. You've got good analysts. We don't need you to talk to us about Netflix programming every 30 seconds and then show you like other random celebrities on our screen that are interested in baseball. Only people watching that broadcast.

our baseball fans. we mentioned that the Dodgers are undefeated, no surprise to anybody. We needed to mention that. Here's a good one. The Dodgers, so in the last 125 years, the Dodgers are just the seventh team to win the first three games of a season after trailing by multiple runs in each game.

So the pitching staff kept them close after falling behind and then the relentless offense went back and got this is what the Dodgers are right there. Not we tend to think of them as this perfectly beautiful team. They're relentless. That's what they did in the playoffs last year. And that's how they played. Right there. They don't need their their starting pitchers to go seven innings into a perfectly controlled bullpen. No, what they've got is they've got an elite end of game guy for when the game is close. And otherwise, they've got a bunch of pitchers that could give them innings and otherwise all the bullpen in

the starters are thinking is just don't ever let it get out of control and the offense can give will give us a shot to win this game. And Edwin Davis, Evan Diaz has two saves already. Yeah, right. Right. Because that's the thing. You get Edwin Diaz to the end of the game with a lead. They're playing Timmy Trumpet in L.A. Just.

We didn't offer him a record breaking enough contract apparently. So let's do some picks I guess. ⁓ For our awards. Right. Do we want to start with like I guess we already talked we talked about this off air with MVP. It kind of comes down to are you taking Aaron Judge in the AL or the field or in the NL are you taking Otani or the field. So I would not pick I'm not going to put either of them because I'm daring to be different. And I think you said it last week because you know it just feels like Judge won't win it this year. I don't know why that's really not

fair

just to offer. I'm more I'm more with that on Otani. So I'm going to pick Bobby with Junior in the American League. I think the Royals will make the playoffs if Bobby with Junior is the MVP in the American League. That's kind of a thing in a world where the Royals are in the playoff. Bobby with Junior is probably winning MVP. I actually am still picking judge to win MVP just because I just think he's just going to have another year looks like a bum right now. He does this. He had to run the remember he had 200 for all April last year.

Yeah, imagine if he hadn't so and now I think it's more interesting because I am NOT as inclined to pick Otani So Otani who said that he wants to win the Cy Young? And I guess if he won the Cy Young he'd probably win the MVP to Right, how could he die? So even if he's good enough to do that and hit the way that he does I'm gonna I think I said before I'm gonna pick Juan Soto as As this is the year that he has the year that and again, it's not like he's been having bad years, but he has this like wow I didn't realize

this guy was that amazing. mean, he's going to bat 300, hit 35 or more home runs. Yeah, Soto was actually my pick too. I think this is for the same reason. I think this is the year he gets it done. He seems locked in. He seems already like he's got pretty decent protection in the lineup, although Boba Shet hasn't done much yet. Right, right. But I just think that this is going to be a year where he's going to hit really well. And I think this is the year one Soto finally gets his MVP. So I put a whole list of guys down for MVP candidates. And there are a lot of guys that, know, Austin Riley got off to a good start.

with the Atlanta Braves and and he's coming all the way back and their fortunes, I think making the playoffs are as tied to him. I having a good as anybody else, anybody else because Strider's hurt again. So that I had him as a young candidate. We'll take him off that list now. I don't think that's going to happen. And Chris Sale, though, he looked good in the first game. He's not an MVP candidate. If we're talking about we're talking about those are young guys. We're talking to MVP candidates. Let's be real. You have to either be Juan Soto or Otani or you have

to

put up a season that's basically the equivalent of what Calli- Calli- Calli-Raleigh did last year. That's still my- And even that isn't good enough. Right. And that's maybe- And the same way, I think, when you look it over at the American League, it's basically, can Bobby Witt Jr. unseat Judge or-

Does you get a year at a guy like Julio Rodriguez or Jose Ramirez? Yep. Yep. I don't think you're going to get one. think like I think that for Seeger, it's kind of hard for me to believe that Seeger is going to be able to play enough games to get sustaining it. The same reason you say me, Mike Trout has gotten up to as good a start as he has in 12 years. they I got to see. I got to play 140 games and I to see the angels in it in like, you know, August ish. So but it's nice to see Trout come out of the box and hit the ball.

well and be a real ⁓ shot for that particular offense. And they're playing well so far. They're scoring runs. how about your Cy Young? If I'm looking at my A.L. Cy Young, are you picking somebody other than Tarek Scoobel? ⁓ No. That's another Tarek Scoobel or the field sort of choice. Well, not really, because I could pick Crochet. I he had a great first start. could pick him. But Scoobel's in the contract here. So it's too many things line up.

really one of the two of them. Right. Right. The only dark horse is maybe you could say, I can't believe you're saying this about this quality of a pitcher, but is Jacob deGrom a dark horse for the Cy Young? I don't think he'll pitch enough to do that. But I put a note down going, who's the best starter in the A.L. West? I started that. You know what? think it might be DeGrom. Because like I said before, when we talking about the Mariners, is that one guy that makes that staff incredible? It's that all five of them are elite good pitchers. Right. I would have it. have a hard time picking who would

My

my Mariner number one is at Logan Gilbert is it was in Brian Wu? You know so I think it is yeah, yeah these you know they basically and that's why we both picked them to win their division because I've got so many guys so yeah There's nobody else Lugo had a terrible first start I put his name down here, and I feel generous didn't look very good You know doing that I put Mason Miller down, but he's the national league so I can't even Yeah, you you got something guy feels like a copy to know how to get Gassman had a good ⁓ I know you copied an old list here though

because Marcus Simeon is still listed as one. What? You've got Marcus Simeon on the MVP list, but you've got Marcus Simeon on the AL MVP list that I brought over and made some changes right now. we look at the NL Cy Young again. this does we? Skeens is finished, obviously. Right. Skeens is done. Skeens. I feel like you've got two clear candidates with the third one kind of just emerging more due to name value in the NL in that you've got Skeens and I think Wheeler just based purely on reputation and that provided he gets back in his effect.

from this time he comes back because he's going to have a shorter season in the first place. But I think Otani you have to put up there as a guy you would least consider. But I can't pitch a season. Do you think Mr. Arasky has a chance? I think he has a chance and certainly I think it's going to be hard for a young pitcher. But that's what happens with young pitchers is they just have that year where they stay healthy. They're dominant. Right. I think you could get a year out of Yamamoto. He's my pick. He's my pick for for Cy Young. I just think he's he's got the middle as they say of what

I think is a guy who can survive the down the downs and still come out and be tough. Also watch for Christopher Sanchez. Yeah. Yeah. I just got paid. Right. You know, the Phillies signed him. That either works or it doesn't show that he should relax, I guess. And I think you can just do that. Yeah. The Phillies, you know, I think we'll miss Rangers Suarez, who he's a dark horse for me in the American League, only in that he's a he's truly a wild card to think how are they going to handle him in the field? I feel more like he's a dark horse.

in the American League by virtue of him being in the American League. Right. he's as much of a dark horse in the National League. That's the 100 % of the reason. They haven't seen him before as much, certainly. And that isn't the way that it used to be, where they haven't seen him before. Right. interleague games. So chances are you might have seen the guy one time. I think Sandy Allen-Contra is going to have a really good season. That's a bull. I don't think he's a Cy Young award winner. Is he Cy Young vote getter? Yeah. Yeah. I think he is. OK. Right. Right. You're talking about guys that might end up getting a vote here. I think he is. Yeah.

and hope against everything. think Kodai Singha is my hope that he's in the running, you know, that he pitches enough to be in the running for Cy Young. He well enough. Because he's looked, you know, like like the guy that came over here at the beginning so far, and he hasn't even pitched a major league game during the regular season yet. This is just coming out of spring training. Right. And obviously, as we talked about, rookie of the year is shaping up to likely be the most interesting race. I mean, I think picking at this point just feels like an absolute impossibility just because every single guy on this list

is likely to have a good season. Yeah, I tend to think that it's rookie of year pitchers are harder to pick, I think, because health becomes such a big part of it. And then innings limitations when they're young pitchers and you know. So that would give an advantage to guys like J.J. Westerholdt, Sal Stewart, Carson Benj over in the NL over guys like Nolan McClain and Bubba Chandler. Same thing over and they like, yes, Savage. You know, he might be the best rookie of the group here. Pitching wise, pitching wise. Same with the

But Murakami or or de lauter might have a chance to win More because they got to just play more games and have more overall impact. So who are you gonna pick?

in the end out it's tough in the end out because I think I was that I'm going to go McLean still because I almost did. Right. McLean is still my pick for an rookie of the year. I'm to go with Westerholt because I think he's going to get the playing time when anything else in St. Louis and he is sort of the hope of that franchise that is going to have a rough year. But I like the fact as you said this in our last podcast that they finally picked the lane and they said OK we're going to rebuild and we're going to just try to let our young players have a lot of experience this year and bring it.

I'm

going to pick Westerholt to have the year that, you know, it's going to be a full year. And it's the same. And I'll pick the American League. I'm going to pick Kevin McGonigal of the Tigers for the same reason. Oh, so it's interesting because I looked at all of the stuff. was paying attention to all the advanced Metro. So this is like and I look, I this sounds like a front runner pick now because I was going to pick Murakami before, but I was going to go with him because a lot of the stuff that people were concerned about as they look deeper into it, specifically about his ability to hit the fastball.

doesn't look like it's as much of a concern when you look deeper into the advanced statistics and that people were just looking for reasons for this guy not to be able to hit and I'll give you a reason what

He plays for the White Sox. Good reason. There's nobody to protect him in that lineup. So after if he plays well after a while, he ain't going to see. We've seen we've seen with rookies. Teams will keep pitching to rookies even when they should probably stop. It is not a rookie in the traditional sense. They're not going to treat him like a rookie. He's an experienced, you know, professional hitter. So I think it's different in that context. So, I think that's going to be the biggest thing against him. I think Okamoto, I don't know that he is even the third best player on his own. There's too many other good players on his team, on his own team.

So ⁓ that's gonna make a difference. All right, and then how about ⁓ Do you want to pick manager of the year? Well, okay, how about we just do it this way, right? right Do you think that that Pat Murphy and Stephen vote have a chance to win their third consecutive? This is the dumbest thing in the world how you win two manager of the year awards in a row blows my mind because if you did it once what does he just bite by extension you get vote should vote, know vote I can make an argument for because he does more with less than a lot of other managers do and so the fact

that

they're getting such good results out of what people would also at the same time say are not very good rosters is why they're a manager of the year. think you're not going to necessarily get that out of the Brewers this year and Pat Murphy, because I just don't think that they're going to do well enough to get that. I actually think he's going to get the recognition he deserves this season because he never gets it. Murphy. No, Dave Roberts. I'm going to pick Dave Roberts to win because honestly, he doesn't get enough credit for how good a manager he is. And I think

because he's got the best players. So how hard is that? I think he's going to put up a really they're going to put up a really good record this year. And I think it's kind of thing where it's like, know what? Yeah, he kind of deserves it.

But he's a smart enough manager and stays out to, you know, they don't need to win one hundred and eight games. Right. If they're coming down the stretch, everybody's going to get rest. And if we win one hundred and two or ninety eight, they might just end up winning one hundred and eight. They because they could be that good. And certainly the way they started is that way. And I like that pick. And and Dave Roberts is getting rightly so the credit for really managing a managing master class in the World Series, you know, that which we don't really talk about too much because of all the, you know, heroics of young

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I know you're not picking him. So who are you picking in the NFL? manager of the year in the end. Well, we said we were going to be I'm just going to ask who's going to win three in a row. I'm going to go back. I'm going to pick Carlos Mendoza, which makes sense for you. have the Mets winning the NL East. And I think if the Mets win the NL East, he's the type he's the type of guy to then get it when they don't give it to Robert. So he might be firing his third base coach after today because the new third base coach sent Lindor home on from first base on a one solo double.

And with nobody out, he got thrown out of the plate and then another out happened and then a fly ball to the track that would have scored the sacrifice fly with one out. Yeah, I run said and didn't. The game is over. so but, know, again, when it comes to a player like that, you know, you from a baseball perspective, most fans and pundits will tell you that is not the right play. You should leave it to the next guy. But I like Lindor trying to score from first on that most of the time he makes it so I can understand why the guy

And they took two or three really good plays, you know, the ball off the wall, the relay throw bounce short hop by the shortstop to get it and pegged it to the plate. The catcher stretches. Everything happened right at the same time. It wasn't that great a throw and he was still decidedly out. He was decidedly out. So that's where it's like at the same time. I'm like, OK, well, you know, it didn't take it wasn't like, you know, the throw home for the shortstop. Yeah, it was a good pick, but it wasn't like it was a money throw that was perfectly on line. No, the catcher had time to.

catch it and reach back out and tag out Lindor demonstratively short of home play. But you can you know, look, we're fans. We can nitpick on managers. You want to nitpick on Mendoza on Sunday is he threw Sean Manaea out there in a situation that he's not accustomed to. So yeah, but that actually worked. It worked out. But you're scratching your head going, man, this is rolling the dice. And that's what managers have to do, particularly early in the season when you've had extra any games and you've got the Mets have seven games in a row from here on out. They're to play nine straight days.

I'm sure every manager in the major leagues is thinking how am I going to have enough pitching to get through the next week because it's just really impossible to hold leads in the major leagues it seems right now. So I think that's the most exciting thing. You know when you think about it is that you know the game seemed to be you know they seem like they might be over and necessarily they're not. We were watching the end of the college game today. Right. Yeah. And they talk about a 15 10 Tennessee all of sudden it's 15 12 Tennessee Vanderbilt is coming back after everyone come back.

in the last two games for walk off victories. change the channel. We come back to check the score. 1615 Vandy game. Tennessee just couldn't find a pitcher. So it happens at the college level too. But I think at the pro level, you know, having a lockdown closer is a rarity for the most part in major leagues. And that's why a lot of these games can flip late. So, uh, yeah, I don't know who you're. Do you want to pick a reliever of the year award? Is that really not? I don't think I qualify that as a major. No, they have, they have made it, you know, a, they can make a lot

things it doesn't mean I have to believe them so yes anyway great week great great to see baseball back who's your AL manager of the year oh I'm sorry I didn't I pick that you didn't even pick your NL you picked Carlos Mendoza I'm gonna pick

I'll pick ⁓ Schneider. Schneider? Schneider, because I don't think he got the credit last year.

You know what? like that. And manager for the year. Votes is a popularity contest. Part of me. That's why I got to want to pick Boone to win it. I to drive the Yankee. really like it. I really like Aaron Boone. I actually think it'll be Hinch though. I on Aaron fight on. I think the Tigers are going to win the division pretty handily and I think he's going to they're going to be the definitive sort of best team. AJ Hinch. Yeah, because I think the AL East is going to beat each other up enough that none of them are going to have exemplary records. I think the Tigers are going to get the one

seed be the demonstrably quote unquote best team in the AL American League and I think that's why he'll get it. So if you had to pick one tiger that could be the MVP on the hitting side aside from Scoobble. I can't pick Tarek Scoobble. No, if you had that that is a hitter not a pitcher who would it be?

Can I still pick Tarek's? Is he going to hit? Is he going to turn into Hotani? Maybe he can start hitting. I think it's Bregman is that linchpin there. Not Bregman. ⁓ No, not Bregman.

Torkelson?

Kerry Carpenter. Carpenter is Carpenter has to have the year that, you know, everybody's been expecting that he out of nowhere. He has to come in there and be, you know, just dynamite because he looked really good in the playoffs last year. And and he hasn't had a season where he's put it together from start to finish. I don't I don't think that's going to happen. But I think in order for it to happen has to be a guy like that that has to sort of come from. think Riley Green can be that guy for them. He has to just go from being a 260 hitter to a 280 hitter. And we talk about that because like we both

think they're going to win the division. that means that there are characters in this play that are really good to have a chance, you know, to win the MVP other than Taris Gubal. That's probably going to be him.