Post All Star Game thoughts & how to get through the 2nd half if your team sucks. Ep. 717 7.20.26

The All-Star Game is complete and the second half has begun. As the draft finishes and the trade deadline nears, the end of the twenty twenty six season finally starts to feel in sight. It's this week in baseball. I think it's I think it's always so interesting coming out of the All-Star Break, because you expect the All-Star Break just sort of in your mind. It's the th waypoint of the season. There's

eighty something games left. That's that's not the case. There's like sixty something games left at this point, people. You took the words right out of my mouth. The teams have played almost a hundred games and you know, the first half is is long in the in the in in the past at this point. And basically the trade deadline is later August third this year than usual. And this is like this is like move up time right now to get into position.

if you're gonna actually do something at the trade line or you're deciding, okay, we're done like the Mets did this week and said everybody except for if you guys are for sale. Because if you're a team that has fifty wins right now, and that means you would be about five hundred, you would have to go

Forty and twenty the rest of the way to get to ninety wins, you'd have to be suddenly a dramatically better team than you've been at any point in that season. So if you're a team that has less than forty five wins, are you really gonna sit there and go, Yeah, we're suddenly gonna rip off like a forty three and seventeen stretch down the seventeen run down the stretch and that's how we're gonna sneak into the playoffs? It's like I don't know if that's too likely. E even you went a little old school there, right? Because

Traditionally, you're right. We use ninety wins as okay, that's the measure of a good season, probably a playoff season. But in this day and age of playoffs, it's 85 wins. You know, so That's why I was given teams at 45 wins. You know, if you have 45 wins, you you could rip off a crazy second half that puts you in play. Now, the thing is, you have a team that's had 45 wins or so up until that point, now has to get forty-three in sixty games. It's not likely, but we've seen teams have

Crazy halves, but crazy runs like that over a small period of time. So I think if you're a team that's really, as long as you're not at like 40-something wins, like if you're the Mets, the Rockies, the the Angels, even the Royals, those teams are all in trouble. If you're the Blue Jays, if you're the Tigers, you can go on a run here in the second half and very much at least put yourself in the conversation for that third wild card spot.

I think we talked like months ago about what would happen if the Tigers got near the all-star break and and Scuble turned out to be healthy. And so now you've got this dilemma of do we trade him because they are they close enough now? 'Cause they were out of it for the longest time. And now they've played better, obviously and they they've been one of the better teams over the past month or so. And Scoobyl pitched a a great game yesterday and looks great, pitched seven innings, shutout ball and all that send up.

What do you do if you're Detroit? Are you sellers or are we gonna hold on to him? What are you gonna do? Right, right. Because the danger of the the real danger of buying is you buy, you can play well and still not make it, and then you lose to Eric Scuble. So now you've screwed yourself in two directions because you've brought guys in that aren't helping your future, and now you've lost your superstar. So I I think it's hard for me to see.

Unless they basically don't lose until the trade deadline. Wait, like the Red Sox? Right, right, right. If they go like if they just don't lose for the next 10 to 12 days and they go on a crazy streak and all of a sudden now we're sitting here about 10, 12 days from now, and the Detroit Tigers are 56 and 52. Okay, then you might be able to convince me that buying is a bit more of an idea. But if you're still middling around 500, the trade deadline.

Are you really gonna trade assets when you cannot even come close to saying you're sure you're gonna sign Tirex Google? You're you're not even sure if you have a shot. I I think you know, my opinion is that if they were to have signed Tarix Google, they would have done it already. Right. And and so if if if that's the premise, and then I could be wrong. Let's face it, he could sign with them and and make me completely wrong. So if that's the case, is what are you gonna get?

And the longer you wait toward the trading dialing. I only got a you know, couple of months to go in the season, who's gonna benefit there because the Tigers have a chance to win that stupid division because nobody is that great in that division. And the playoff scenario in the AL, as we start today Sunday, the Red Sox are now the third wildcard team is winning twelve in a row.

Everybody's hovering around 500 in the American League. Even the Rays are kind of starting to come back, and the Yankees are starting to come back. So, because of that, there is an argument that you might not even need to buy to make the postseason. You could just could could you win with this group of Tigers if they all played well? Well, in this American league, it's not impossible. Right, right. And I I think that's all the more argument for not.

doing anything crazy here at the trade deadline. It's so fluid that the year, the fact that you're even in this in what seemed like a lost year has to be a blessing to you if you're Detroit. So I I think trying to screw up further plans in writing what was already a year many people had written off for you just doesn't doesn't fit my timeline. The same way, like a team I could see making a desperate move is the Orioles.

If you know why because if you believe if you're the GM and your fate is tied to this group in some respects, you you've invested a lot in this. And if this doesn't work out, you kind of have to start looking at like, okay, this is three seasons in a row. We've changed the manager, we've brought different people in around this court, and nothing seems to work. Like haven't changed the manager, and and and they they did sign Kyle Bradish yesterday to a five-year extension. So

I I like that from the Oil standpoint. Excellent pitcher, pitching really well. and and I guess you're right. If you're the Oils, you'll say, well, why not us? Why, why, why wouldn't we do it? Exactly. You've got money tied up in guys. You're not really, you know, you're not going to be able to easily pivot into a young guy thing after all this. So they make more sense to me, you know, trying to go for it than a team like the Tigers, whose future is a lot more uncertain.

You know, you know, you mentioned the rays and we didn't talk much about the All-Star game, which I did not watch. And you know, c congratulations to to you and and obviously to to me. You're now an uncle as as your sister had granddaughter like my granddaughter last week and our granddaughter. so that was great. And so we didn't record an episode last week and we didn't I didn't watch the All-Star Game or the Home Run Derby or any of that stuff. And you know what? I was okay.

I was a nice little break from baseball. And then by the time it was done, I was like, Okay, I'm ready for baseball to be back. I was ready to watch it again by the time it came back. Well, Mets quickly started quashing that. The Mets played a Thursday game, which I I watched 'cause they're in the afternoon half watched as I was was doing something or Thursday night. and that was fun to watch again, not not only because they wanted just to watch a baseball game, which I hadn't done in like a week. and then Friday I was the Mets didn't play. For some reason the Phillies

And the World Cup, but there's no game there. I don't know why they didn't play on Friday. They play on Thursday, on Friday for whatever. Anyway, so I ended up watching the Yankees against the Dodgers, and it was Sasaki and Garrett Cole, and you watched a lot of this game with with me together for for a change. And I know we watched like the whole thing. It was we watched the whole game, and it was a really good game to watch, actually, from a baseball perspective. and what's interesting, you know, is that in in in two cases

Right, you know, the we over the weekend, that game, one batter too much for Garrett Cole. Right. We were we were literally watching the game, Garrett Cole, and you could see Dave Roberts was thinking about bringing him in. He's like, I mean you could see they were thinking about bringing in a reliever for Cole, yeah, yeah. And Boo was like, I'm gonna leave him in for one more batter, and then they just made him and you could tell it was coming that hole at back.

It felt like We would kept saying, like, I don't know, you the lefty in the bullpen and you got a left-handed hitter, Max Muncie. Why wouldn't you not make the move now? Now now managers get killed all the time for pulling guys too soon. And here you got a veteran player, and you know what Garrett Cole's gonna tell you if you go to the mouth. And the Yankees have been a team that have been killed for relying too much analytics and not trusting their guy. They trust their guy and they get punished for it. So as we often say, as I often say, it's very much a result-based kind of thing. If he had gotten

Him out, we would all loud at him as a genius for leaving him in. Since he didn't get him out, we all think he's stupid. But if he had made the switch, it'd be the same thing. If he makes the switch and the guy gets him, it's the right switch. If he makes the switch and he doesn't get him, it's the wrong switch. And and last night, because the Yankees and the Dodgers were rained out, and I'll talk about that in a second. so they had the Seattle Giants game. Okay, why am I watching a Mariners Giants game? but I know and Landon Webb, Logan Webb.

Is pitching a terrific game. He's got a great podcast I mentioned and all that stuff. It's the seventh inning. You know, he's got one out. He's he's got about 90 pitches and all that stuff. And Cole Young is up for Seattle. And it's a three-nothing game for for them. And the next thing is it's three three. And and you could just see Logan Webb as the rest. The Mariners won on a J. Rod Homer in the tenth inning. And there's a game

Where Tony Vitello, the new manager of the Giants this year, he does the non-analytical thing and leaves his guy in and he gets crushed for it. Right, right. A and there are going to be a certain number of games where the guy just does give it up. And there's nothing no guy is so good.

That you're not gonna have him do that. And even in the course of Cy Young seasons, there will be you forget it because it's a Cy Young season. But there's the game where, yeah, he wasn't really that good in that game. That that's human nature. He's not nobody's that good the entire season. Otherwise, we would have had one pitcher hit a 0-0-0 ERA at some point. And guess what? Nobody ever gets close.

But I for one as a baseball fan was happy to watch both of those bats happen, even though it didn't work out for the manager. like I'm not gonna say I want to see more of that, but I was happy to see it because you don't see it as much as you sh you should. Right, right. We like it y you do not see enough high leverage at bats late in the game between the starter and the best hitters on the other team anymore. It just doesn't ha or any hitters on the other team for the most part.

spot on spot on with that. And so because the Yankees and the Dodgers are rained out, they'll play a day night two admission double header today at Yankee Stadium. And of course the Yankees Dodgers is a marquee matchup. So you know they're not gonna have a twin bill. So a 1235 game, listen to this. A 1235 game. I think that game is Schlitler and Yamamoto. So that's another terrific pitching matchup. Huge pitching matchup. So the the late game is a Fox game tonight. It's a national game. So they gotta wait till seven

15 or 730. There's no pitcher, you know, announced for either team for game two. And then the Dodgers go to Philadelphia where they have to wait until 7:15 tomorrow night to play the national game against the Phillies. So playing the Sunday night game and the Monday night. No tears for the Dodgers. Nobody will will feel bad for them anyway. But because you're a popular team and you're in this situation.

You know, this is the kind of stuff that happens, and not every team would have to deal with this. You might play it a little differently were it not a nationally televised couple of games. Certainly. A certainly you would have moved the second game, that seven o'clock game, that would be played at probably three this afternoon or four instead of at seven. I'm surprised they're not doing like a three thirty-seven double header. Like I'm really surprised they're starting this one at twelve. It's like I guess they want to do separate gates. They want to stay away from the World Cup game at three o'clock on a Sunday. Good point.

I think there's that there's a certain contingent of that going on. Yeah, that's gonna kinda dominate the airwaves this afternoon. So yeah, we mentioned that you know the Red Sox won twelve straight, and I wanted to mention so the two teams that first changed managers and surprisingly were the Red Sox when they got rid of Alex Cora and then the Phillies when they got rid of Rob Thompson, I would say that both of those things worked out.

You know, at least it you know, bet they're better than they were and the Red Sox and have a chance, the Phillies have a chance. The Mets waited longer to move Carlos Mendoza. It didn't work out, but I don't know that Mick doing it earlier would have changed their fates in this particular season. I I think there's a lot more argument, at least in Philadelphia's case, that it was tied like that roster was too talented to be playing that poorly. I think the Red Sox is

Because I don't think anybody would say Alex Corr is a bad manager. So it's hard for me to think that obviously getting rid of Alex Corr was the right move. But I do wonder if a bit and also we have to remember this is a 12 game winning streak, and there's still only one game under 500. No, no, they're all they're they're one game over 500 now. Right, right. But they could just go right back to being the same team they were, and this was a 12 game blip.

That you forget about at the end of the season, other than going, that was a we we had that moment of hope around the all-star break. So I'm not a hundred percent ready to move on and be like, yes, Alex Cora, that that was the reason they got better. Would you say Craig Breslau is the biggest beneficiary right now of the twelve game winning streak for the Red Sox? I am sure he is hugely relieved by what has gone on here. He he's probably feeling pretty vindicated right now on multiple levels, but

It's gotta hold the rest of the way. Otherwise, this is just a blip on the radar. And I think the Phillies, I think the Phillies, that's more of a case of I think a guy that had been there a while, his message had run out, and getting a new voice in there helped a veteran team more than another team would. Both managers now who were interim managers, right? Don Mattingley, you know, only gonna finish the season and Chad Tracy are like, Well, you know, I

Be happy to hang around and manage the team if that's what they want. So they've backed off of their I'm not gonna be I'm an interim manager going, Hey, it's going well. I'm running things here. yeah, I I'd like to do it. I might stick around. Yeah. And I think also when you look at those teams, both you you know, as a Met fan, what we did not realize that before the beginning of the season is that the Met roster is significantly more flawed than either the Boston or the Philadelphia roster.

The Boston is at least a little closer to the Mets roster in terms of overall flawness. But I think re replacing a manager does a lot more on those teams. It does not fix any of the underlying issues with the Mets that are very prevalent. And and the Red Sox are still doing this without Roman Anthony. and and and and see Weyler Abreu has hit two home runs and won the game two games in a row for them, so he's on a stupid streak. But you know, he is

looking a little bit more like the player you thought he might become. And you know, there's a lot of good players. We both said this about the Red Sox and it just wasn't working for them. I I I I believe before the season I thought they were gonna be okay. And the pieces are still there if the pitching can get its act together and and deliver more consistency as they have over the past dozen games. I think that they'll be there to the end of the season in the race for wild card.

I I I think the thing you just have to look at is so they've had five guys in their lineup. You know, you've had Wyler Breyu and Caleb Durbin. You know, Wyler Breu's had the last in over his last seven days he's hit four home runs and he's hitting four fifty five with a two two point eight three OPS. That's good, right? So that's pretty good. So like that's the kind of thing where it's like, okay, over like over the last fourteen over the last fifteen days you're looking at guys like you know, all of these guys are putting up

Crazy numbers that they have not put up to at this point in the season. So you're like, okay, you know, is this something that's gonna kind of hold? Keep it, keep it going. Now let's let's talk a little bit about what I we call the first half. So here we are in in mid-July, basically, heading heading to later July. And what you have, you know, are some teams that have hung around and stayed there that you were surprised.

Probably that would be in in my mind as good a hitting team as they ended up being because of what their history had been before this year. Right. And I think what I am seeing manifest is the fear of casual baseball fans everywhere. But now we are just past the all-star break. And as I look around the baseball, it goes, yeah, the Doctors are going to win their third straight championships. Because does it look like any team has a chance of beating them?

Wait, you just really, even Milwaukee Brewer fans, do you really think this team they're the closest team to them in terms of wins? They're the only other sixty win team. And I dare any of those fans be like, yeah, we're gonna go into a playoff series and beat the Milwaukee Dodgers. I mean, they have to beat anybody first for me to really start feeling believing in that one. And and and feel about, you know, about the Dodgers with the trading deadline come up and you never know what the Dodgers might do at the trading deadline because of, you know, the way they manip manage their assets. But

You know, they're gonna get back, eventually gonna get back Edwin Diaz. at just about the right time. They're gonna get back Will Smith. That's gonna help. Tucker could wake up and remember, yeah, I am a good baseball player at some point. That could still help. It seems like they're doing this not firing on all cylinders with what would be considered to be a human year from Shohei. Exactly. It's like

He's only he's only a great hitter this year and one of the best pitchers in baseball. You know, it's not like he's not, you know, the best hitter in baseball like he's been the last few years. So it's just like that is something that kind of makes me nervous. Now, obviously baseball has a way of humbling us when we say stuff like that. If anything, I just cursed the Dodgers to a first round exit in the playoffs, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

But I you know the teams I was talking about, you know, as the hit like the Pirates, we we tooled on them before the season and you know, and how you know they they were just such a bad hitting team and maybe bringing in some of the guys was gonna help. Well, it's definitely helped. obviously the Tiger Tigers are one of the top two hitting teams in the National League after being at the bottom of the what's that? The Pirates. The Pirates. The Pirates and you know, the Nationals are also a team that hits way more than we thought. The Marlins.

hit way more than anybody thought that they couldn't anybody being me. you know, and the White Sox, right? And are another team. So you've got these underachieving teams perennially who are having better seasons this year, on the heels of decent enough pitching, except for the Washington bullpen. and and and just really good hitting. Right. You know, guys like Ryan O'Heard going over to Pittsburgh and having a great year for is things that you know we weren't thinking about before the season. And that was

Making a big difference for them because he's really been a big presence in that lineup for them. And and the Pirates just got, you know, Jared Jones back recently, and his past few starts, including the one yesterday, was a gem. And you know, Skeens has actually had kind of a a not as great a Skeens year as you might expect him to have, even though it's been better than you think, because of his le standard.

They have a lot of pitching stuff. Braxton Ashgroff is is is good. They're good guy that I'm gonna guess a lot of baseball fans have not heard anything about is the Pirates' new right fielder, Esmerlin Valdez. what is what a streak? Right, right. He's been on a team, he's come up, he's played 30 games so far. The guy's hitting 304 with a one seventy-nine OPS, he a thousand seventy-nine OPS. Like he is hitting the ball, and that suddenly gives that team a dimension that nobody was factoring in. And if all of a sudden they have

A really you add another hitter that's a really good hitter in that lineup, even if he's only having just a given name, like a Vientos 24 style season. That could be enough to suddenly add a dimensionality to your lineup that suddenly you're a way more potent offense than anybody could have predicted. I think more likely the Pirates and and the Mets have just what they're looking for with all those bullpen arms, the Mets are looking to move. The Pirates should, you know, go hard if they've got the assets to to to go get it, to get

Minter or Rayleigh or Weaver or any of those guys or all of those guys. Right, exactly. They'll bring in some bullpen arms and and reinforce a team that can definitely make a run in the NL Central. Yeah, I I don't know that are are the Marlins at that same point where, you know, fortify the bullpen to are they go I I just don't feel like the Marlins are as in that same position because they don't have schemes, but they they have out Contra, who's been he's been great.

but he's not skiens and they don't have Jared Jones and they don't have Ashcrow. So I don't know if their pitching in a playoff would hold up as much as the Pirates might. Right, right. And there's a lot more unproven about the Pirates. You know, Valdez has been a great story so far, but it's been 30 games, and we've seen guys go on a run for a bunch of games and then just stop and they're never that guy again. So it'll be interesting to see.

what ends up being, you know, the full run here from a team like that. But I think there's a lot of different teams here that are sort of in that like do we, do we not sort of, you know, will we, will we, won't, you know, trade deadline thing. You know, if you're the St. Louis Cardinals, do you believe and make a run? If you're the Diamondbacks, if you're the Padres, you know, do you make a bunch of moves at the deadline? You know, if you're a team like the Miami Marlins,

Spoiler alert, they're just as much in it. Did they make a move trying to bring something? But do really think that's worth it for them? I said I don't think so. And I think a lot of those teams you mentioned, I don't know if the Cardinals should be all in on trying to do something to win this year. I don't think so either, but I think that the fact that there's a whole lot like this is a great year to be a seller. Let's put it that way.

Yeah. There's a lot of people. Well, the Mets took care of that, didn't they? Right, right. The Mets are like, okay, at least if you're going to be selling this they did something right this year. Right, right. It's great, it's a great market because you've got a lot of teams that want to be buying, which is gonna drive the price up and give you a chance. It means there's gonna be suitors. It's not like one of those seasons where it's just like, all of the teams are kind of locked into place already, and nobody's really gonna be making a big swing. if you're the Marlins, you can think we're four games out of four or five games out of first place, right.

Right, the Cardinals are playing the D back this weekend in a pivotal series for the wild card. I'm like, like, are you serious? Right, right. That's you have teams that are in the position where it's like you sweep a series against a right opponent, all of a sudden you screenboard yourself into, are you a division champion conversation?

Yeah and and we know we give the AL Central a you know a hard time for for being someone in that but the AL West as we it ain't much better. And you know, this this week Texas seems to be, you know, playing a little bit better, but next week it'll be Seattle and and and and maybe Houston's gonna make a run. who knows? The AL West feels like which team is just going to be the one that doesn't give it to the other ones. Like whichever team is sort of just left standing because the other ones all just trip and fall, that's gonna be the team that wins. But I don't think

Anybody would you know, this is not last year's Mariners team. I don't unless all of a sudden they get to the playoffs and start playing a completely different brand of baseball, I don't think I'd be excited about any of these teams in the playoffs. I don't think I'd be excited about almost any AL team in the playoffs right now. Before Cole Young's game time home run off Logan Webb yesterday, Cal Raleigh was the batter front of him who struck out, batting a snappy one seventy or one eighty, you know. I mean, it's it's hard to believe that Cal Raleigh has been this bad for this long.

You know, we all it was like we all knew it was gonna be a step back this year. I don't think anybody realistically was not surprised by it. But I think that the combination of the sheer amount of pressure on him and then when it went bad trying to find a way out of it, I can't imagine the like that seems like the kind of guy that'll bounce back and have a perfectly good season next year. And it was just like the combined expectations and slow start this year.

Just dipped through his head and he was never able to get out of it. I was looking at the home run single season home run champions. Cal Raleigh, of course, tied Babe Ruth last year for ninth place all time in the most home runs in the season with sixty. And so my whole thing, like Babe Ruth is tied for ninth with Cal Raleigh for the most for the longest time. That was that was the record, sixty, right until Maris hit the sixty one. So, you know, you have all of this button and and now he's been sort of buried, you know, you know, down

Down there, but Cal Raleigh, you know, that's a special season. And as a as a catcher, it'll always be a special season, obviously, because of that. Right. And if we really look at Cal Raleigh's career, this season is not it's only really an outlier in terms of power. And it's just a bad it's not that much a bad average season. Because for a guy that's hitting 165, how much below do you think that is of his career average? Well, probably not 50 points.

Fifty five points. Yeah. That's it. That is the difference between that that's not when you think about a guy hitting one sixty five and you're yeah, that's only fifty-five points off of his career average, you'd be just like, wait, what? That's like, okay, yeah, hitting one sixty five seems a lot more plausible when that's a guy's a career two twenty hitter. You know, if if if the Mariners are to make a run to to win that division, because I think it might take winning the division to get in the playoffs, for from from the West.

it'll be Cal Riley turning it around will be pivotal in that happening. Because the thing is, is up until this point every year, he was a guy that was slugging, you know, 750-ish until last season when he slugged 950-ish. Obviously, that's why we all kind of said, Well, we can't expect that again. This year he's down to slugging 573. If he can get him back himself back up into the 750 range, the Mariners will the average will be okay in that.

Yeah, he'll have to do he'll have to do it at nine fifty to get to five fifty up the right he was last year. Yeah, at least for at least at least for a while. So well let's quickly go around a couple of interesting things in in the league. The the guy who had 12 hits and 12 at bats, 12 straight play plate appearances, Tyler Tolbert. Royal. That's that is an amazing thing that like fifteen, twenty years from now we'll you look back on and going

Wow, 12 hit. That's that was special. Who is Tyler Tobert? Is what's gonna probably happen at at that point. Verlander, Justin Verlander announced that he's going to retire, which is sad but not surprising. Right, right. That was, you know, something we were all waiting for. I wonder if you're going to see now Scherzer sort of do the same thing, especially with the season the Blue Jays had. I'm curious to see.

Well, we did see some guys red sign their new young pitch. You know, them going the opposite direction as we have old great pitchers retiring, new young ones are getting signed. Cause Chase Burns got signed to a seven-year extension for a hundred and five million dollars. And we're seeing this more and more with teams. They're locking up their young pitchers on big young long deals, like we said with Kyle Bradish, who signed a five-year extension. And I I like it actually for both. I like it for the player.

I like it for the clubs. I I I don't see a a huge down. Yeah, the the player could be giving away some future income, but the guarantee of being paid at a younger age, that's something that you know, just on on its own, I think is better than where it has been. Right and and obviously things that are gonna precipitate trade deadline moves, you saw some injuries, you know, the the real Phillies lost Brad Keller, and yeah, they've got Jay Durin, but

Alvarado's not been great this year, and Durin is a guy that you're like, I love him until we're in a big leverage postseason game, and then well he hasn't pitched in that many either, obviously. Right. And he struggled last year. So you're just like, ooh, I don't know how much I like. I think that's a really good call on Keller. And you know, he was a big pickup for them that you know, if you're not paying attention, didn't realize that become an important part of the bullpen. they don't have Matt Strom anymore, they let him go last year. So yeah, the Philly bullpen, they're gonna be looking for bullpen help as well.

And and and so will the Braves, obviously look for bullpen help. And you know, the Mets have the probably their the best bullpen they've had in in a long time, and what a waste it is to do it in a in a year where you stink.

Exactly. And I know I know it is July, but fall is approaching, and much like the changing of the seasons, that is once again heralded by Byron Buxton going to the I. Yeah, that's that's unfortunate. Like the birds flying south for the winter. It is a yearly occurrence. Well, he missed the all-star game. Hopefully he comes back soon. He's having that season this year that you yo you that's a big part of the reason why they've been better than people would realize. They're they're about 500 team too, just about. I think so.

I I don't want to get into the whole Mets Lindor, the trade thing. We mentioned it when we we came on just in terms of everybody being for sale and the fact that Lindor wasn't included in the protected lists. And I will just say Met fans who think the solution for the Mets is to get rid of Lindor and bring him somebody out are not looking at things the right way. He is not the issue. He's having a bad year, having a really bad defensive year. That is not going to fix the Mets.

There there is it's really funny because you have there's two schools of thought on trading Lindor. You either still think that this is just a bad year, and when you look at his career, he's been like a 5.5 plus war player the bunch of seasons. He had a great year last year. And you're like, why are we about to trade a shortstop when we have literally no replacement for plan for him anywhere in the organization right now? So there's that school of thought that like you really can't trade him. Then there's the other school of thought is like, okay, let's say you

Actually, somehow think Francisco Lindor is washed, which you know what? Really bad start to the year last year offensively, really, really bad year offensively this year, really bad year defensively this year. That's something that's kind and he didn't, you know, he was okay last year, he was good last year defensively, but the signs of a guy slipping were starting to come through. The range was starting to drop off. And so if you're a Met fan that believes, yeah.

This is the new Francisco Lindor, the guy we're seeing right now. We want to trade him. Who the hell are you gonna trade him to? The guy makes 35 million dollars a year, has a limited no trade clause in his sign for the next five seasons. What team, if you guys think he sucks, is gonna be jumping up and down to give you stuff to take him from you? Well, the pressure player. The precedent is that when they did the offloading of Scherzer and Verlander, the Mets ate salary.

In in order to move those guys. This isn't that situation. Right. That would those were much shorter term deals compared to this. That you're gonna be paying a portion of a salary for the next four or five years. You don't want that. That's the same as effectively having him on the team, What's the point of that? Steve Cohen didn't become a a a wealthy man because he does stupid things like doing something like that. That doesn't preclude the possibility that Francisco Lindore is not the player he was, the pastor.

Few seasons and we have to mentally adjust what we maybe he's not a five-war player anymore. That is possible. But he's he's not a two-war player. Right, right. He might be a 3.5 or a four-war player. Right. But you have to think about that. That yeah, he might not be that guy we remember him as or we think of him as. And now he's going to have to mentally shift his now. He's no longer the guy of the team. And it's now entirely so it'd be kind of interesting. I I just thought of this, and this is the last I'll say in Lindorah. It's like

You know, you you kind of look over at third base and them and the Mets, you Bichette's playing there this year. He's only there, maybe for another year, maybe not. And go that, you know, at some point does Lindor begin to look over at third base and going, Maybe that's where I go. Lindor wouldn't Lindor's arm is not his best weapon, and so sticking him at third base doesn't make a ton of sense. I would much think that second base makes way more sense as a place to park him. I I I some talking about lack of agility and range would be less noticeable at third than it would be at second.

Right, but but his gr deteriorating arm is gonna be a lot more noticeable at third conditions. Well we we can argue about that another time. Right. What leads to one. I I noticed that from our our friend Tom Stone, who's got the now taking the the field baseball buffet daily bug that there's a bunch of guys that ha have four hundred on base averages through the first half of the year. And when I saw that it was six guys, Alvarez

Soto, Nick Kurtz, James Wood, Brian Metals, and Shohei, exactly 400. I thought, well, well, how many guys finished last year at the end of the season with a 400 on base average? Only one. And it was Aaron Judge, and he did it with a ridiculous four fifty-seven on base average. That's that's crazy. His season last year was otherworldly.

So which makes Barry Bonza six nine in that one year. Just like you don't really want to think about it. You can't even fathom that kind of a thing. So it's it's kind of nice to see guys, you know, doing things and and I hope that at least more than one guy will finish the season with a four hundred on base average. Pretty good chance of it this year. You have enough guys up there that there's a good shot of at least two of them sticking around, especially Alvarez, who's up at four thirty. You'd have to have a terrible second half to fall below. So what is your story of the week?

So I my story of the week was something a bit more personal because it was just something that I have noticed that is kind of covering over me in that I am not nearly the Mets have been bad this year. I think that is an unquestionable thing. We've talked about it many times in the podcast. And we've even kind of hinted at here at the podcast in that it has somewhat sapped my enthusiasm for baseball a bit. I am definitely not watching as many games as I watched at the beginning of last year. And certainly my

watch time petered out towards the end of last year. But there is a general malaise that has kind of come over me where I am not as connected. And if it was not for the podcast, I think I'd be even more disconnected from the game. And it was just so interesting in what can you know, does that make you a bad baseball fan? Do I I I feel almost guilty like I'm not giving it enough attention, but like it's a it's a sport.

Yeah, yeah. No, I I think that's fair and and you know, Met because the Mets spend so much money, the most money, you know, it it people love to, you know, raz on them for, you know, their their epic failures. But if your other market teams that don't have winning seasons like the Rockies, or the every season is like this.

Right, like you know, you may start with a little optimism and in some of these other places that optimism gone way before July because you know you don't have a chance. And how do you maintain your fandom and and are you that if you don't have success or that that dream to follow? And certainly years where you have expectations are a lot more difficult. If I had gone to this year with no expectations for the Mets, I had expected them to be bad and this would entirely be here about let's see what the young guys can do.

Then I don't think I would be nearly as upset at this point. So maybe teams like the Rockies, because they never expected to be like the general frustration level isn't as high. But I imagine the empathy level is rapidly increasing, where it's like, well, it's gonna be like this next year. So what's the point? You know, and on the other hand, you know, if you're fans of the White Sox and the Marlins, even the Nationals and the Pirates, you're you're this is fun. Right. This this is like, hey, that we're we're actually good.

You know, if you're the Royals, you're you're doing kind of what the Mets are doing, going, What the hell happened? And I I think as a fan, you don't need to live and die with your team in a season. I think if your team is having a crappy season, you're allowed to at least start you don't have to root for that, but you can follow of another team that's in the hunt. Pick another team and follow them. At least enjoy watching a team be in the race.

Rather than torturing yourself being like, yes, today is down for my daily penance of watching the Mets punish me. And here's another thing for Met fan therapy if we're gonna go down this road here and all that a as as as we and and if you're any of a bad team from the MLB came out with a schedule for twenty twenty seven last week and it s starts it was the same day as like the Mets were playing like well clearly the twenty twenty-six season is over because they already put out the twenty seven schedule. There's no reason to even play the rest of the season, at least you're because of Mets.

It starts the earliest it ever has, March twenty fourth. and and and and that's all a great thing to think about if there's a season at all. Right? Because you know, w enjoy watching baseball. You know, you you could be looking back and not have have a delay in the baseball season going, man, you know, those crap I could have watched in August and September. I wish I'd watched a few because there's no baseball exactly. I don't I I would watch them at TV if they suck.

will be what we were potentially saying next spring. Exactly, exactly. So my my story of the week and and I I'm not not I I floated up the idea of doing the whole iPad thing, which is really

You know, that they are re re legislating against iPads and and and pay I've been on this not having iPads at all in the dugout and the players seem to love it. So but that's not what I want to do. I wanted to talk about because here here we are on on the Sunday of the World Cup, which hasn't yet been played the game later on today. and you think, okay, this has been an amazing World Cup and and probably because of the new US

You're seeing the games in real time as opposed to two in the morning or whatever kind of thing. this is this this is exciting. It's been really fun, you know, to watch the games. And I've watched more soccer in the past month and maybe it's because the mess are awful as part of it too. but you know, the the Olympics is coming up and so they're trying to negotiate with MLB to have the MLB players play in the Olympics and put a hole in the schedule in twenty eight. They're gonna be playing in Los Angeles and all that. And so it made me think, gee, you know, is the Olympics that important for baseball?

Is it like Olympic soccer? Which, yeah, Olympic soccer is nice. You'd like to win an Olympic soccer gold medal, but you want to win the World Cup. And now in baseball, here's my question and my thought. Is the world baseball classic obviously reign supreme over winning an Olympic gold medal? And will it always be that way? Yes. Will it always be that way? I can't say for sure, but does it mean more to win the world baseball classic than the Olympics right now? Yes, totally.

And and you think about basketball, right? In basketball, actually winning the gold medal, and it's a weird thing in basketball because it used to be amateurs, right? And so the the best players in the world professionals weren't even playing until nineteen ninety-two. But now I think to win the Olympic gold medal is the epitome of basketballness for a country standpoint. The Olympic does have that supremacy in that event.

Right, 'cause there is not a secondary event where all of the Well there's the world basketball championships, which nobody cares about. Right, right, right. But the Olympics is what like like it just depends on the sport. The World Cup is the World Cup and that's always going to take precedence over the Olympics. World baseball classic, I think, is also gonna take precedence over the Olympics. You know, I think it just depends on the sport. I think that could the Olympics somehow get there, they would have to somehow get a spectacle that was better than the world baseball classic. I don't see how.

And I don't see that happening. No. And and of course and and you know, I I'm not as hard on Rob Manfred as a lot of people are as commissioner. but I think, you know, baseball's desire to own all this.

Right. We're gonna own the world baseball classic and make sure that it it complies with what we want to do in Major League Baseball. And the same thing with the Olympics. They are driving what's happening in the Olympics, the all-powerful, you know, wizard of Ozzy kind of stuff when it comes to, you know, ma managing this stuff. And I sometimes think it would be interesting were it not Major League Baseball's decision to do everything the way they want to. But I would love if there was another governing body or organization big enough to do it, but I understand why.

Major League Baseball is doing this is because there is no better global advertisement for the game of baseball than the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. It's the best way to get people all over the world to put eyes on baseball and watch and become fans. So I it totally makes sense why they're driving that. And doing it in the middle of the season around the all-star break in 28.

I just wonder what you're gonna get when you do that. I just don't know what to expect. But guys will be hurt that can't that that happens and all that stuff. Will guys go pull out if their team I I don't know. Teams are reluctant to let guys go to the world baseball classic. They might be we're even more reluctant mid season to let guy go play in full games like that for the Olympics. So we'll really have to see how that happens and plays out. Last question as we as we go out here. Will Jordan Alvarez win the triple crown in the American League?

I think it's even more interesting. Well Jordan Alvarez win the triple crown in the American League and the Mostros still not make the playoffs. I'm gonna say both of those is true. I I think there's a good chance both of those might be true at the end of the season.