The Brewers Won It All. Will Baseball Follow Their Blueprint?

The Milwaukee Brewers are the 2026 World Series champions. Have we seen the future of baseball? Is everybody gonna play like the Brewers now? Because it's a copycat league. We're also gonna talk about the awards, a few of the awards that we are gonna be coming up since it's November. almost Cooper Sound's back. We've been gone, but we're ready to go.

The World Series I was fortunate enough to see the last game of the World Series after I had been away and missed the end of the Dodgers series. the end of the Guardians and the first four games of the World Series. It was really And the most exciting games of the World Series. It was a four one series, then it was a

Were there exciting games in the World Series? Yes, there was one exciting game. Yeah, I think I think when I went back and, you know, obviously I didn't wa I didn't watch them. and I be I couldn't watch them because I was in Italy and it's six hours ahead and the game started at two in the morning. And even worse, even worse, even if I had wanted to get up and stream the games, right? Because I could've I looked into it, you couldn't.

They just wouldn't allow American streaming services. So to try to find a bar at two AM in in in Italy where they'd be putting on the World Yeah, that didn't ever cross my mind. So I basically would wake up in the morning and read about the games and and you know the the Brewers sort of dispatched the Dodgers in the last game. I think it was three when I got there, so that that was done quickly. And then the you know the Guardians had one were up two one. I thought, maybe they have a chance. No, they had lost. And so the the World Series was kind of set between the two teams that are

Are somewhat mirror images of one another. Right, right, right, right. I think most people would say as much as we both of us collectively doubted on the Rays the whole year, these were really the two best teams in baseball pretty much the whole way through. They were they were the two best teams. If you look at top to bottom the ro top to bottom the rosters they put together, they were, you know, especially when you look at the lineups that they were the most consistent, right? Right, right. The Rays performance in the series, notwithstanding. And you know, and a part of that you have to give credit to the Brewers pitching in D.

Almost Cooperstown (02:07.536)
Defense into just shutting down the Rays bats. But I think you were saying somebody on the broadcast put it pretty succinctly in that the Rays picked a sure bad time to have the worst series of their season you know, one of the worst series of their bad time for a bad week. Yeah, like they just did not play well in that series, and you could see that. Right. Its sharpness wasn't there. They didn't field the ball the way they did during the regular season. you know, their best player might have been Chandler Simpson. I mean, you want to give Camonero maybe a nod or Drew Matt Rasmussen, but Chandler Simpson.

Simpson ended up, you know, playing very well. I think he'll be their leadoff hitter next year, but it wasn't enough, and they really they were behind almost the entire series. It felt, yeah, it felt very much like the World Series last year, which felt inevitable in a way. Like you just sort of knew the Dodgers were gonna win last season, and it was just a matter of time. And then that's kind of how this went. The Brewers felt like they were gonna win this World Series, and it's a matter of time to get there. Yeah, and of course you read the stories afterwards, right, about the Brewers and how they they actually were talking about winning the World Series.

During the regular season. Yelich was known to have said that to his teammates. He promised Robin Yellow that they'd win the World Series. And you know, they they did. They did it during the regular season, right? They beat the Dodgers in a key series late in the in the season. And I think that's when a lot of people's perception on them turned from being like a okay, wait a second. I don't think this is like last year's Brewers team that got to the postseason and then got dispatched. This is a contender. But but despite that, by the time they got to the the playoffs, and they obviously had a buy-in.

In the first round. you know, they played so well that they had only lost if had they managed to sweep it, they would have been the first team to only lose one postseason game. As it as it is, they were tied, only losing two postseason games, which puts them among the most dominant postseason teams in history, sort of New York Nick like a little bit. Well, this is this is crazy is that in there and they they hit two eighty as a team in the World Series. Right. Gonna win the world you're gonna win the World Series when you hit that well. This is the best ever. And and we had the few.

series in five years collectively. I mean just the home runs were not a part of it like when the Dodgers play. Right. And you saw the you were playing with power pitching, you know, just guys coming out left and right. I thought the funniest thing was at one point during the World Series, I forget who was calling it, but they said they were bringing in former Mets pitcher McGill to close the game. yeah, he made a mistake. He flee got confused by which McGill because I'm like that's not the McGill we've been watching. This one's much this one's a dominant closer for the Brewers. But the Brewers

Almost Cooperstown (04:37.112)
Brewers believed in themselves, and I think I noticed that, you know, as the playoffs began going, man, this team is is clearly on a mission, and it's so interesting that they they had to beat the team that was their, you know, the Voldemort, so to speak, in the Dodgers. And I think what's interesting is that you talked about this at the beginning as what are people gonna learn from this Brewers team? And I'm gonna argue not a whole lot because I think they're gonna be kind of like that 2015 Royals team, where people are gonna go, you know what, that's not easy to replicate.

Yeah, yeah. You know, if you're looking at the Brewers going forward, going, okay, can't how would they replicate this? Well, the good thing you might say is they had a lot of contributions up and down the lineup. So it just wasn't one offensive player. Nobody had a series, you know, where you go, okay, well, you know, that that world series is because Alex Rodriguez carried them to that World Series like he did for that Yankees that were. So you could kind of hope if you're a Brewers fan, going, look, you know, everybody just comes back and does their job and all that. We got a million guys that can do it. That's what you need. I got one team.

to point to as a as an example of why that's a nervous thing to count on. And it's called the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah, right. We thought the same thing about them going into the season, going, man, up and down that lineup after the World Series last year, going, they're right there. And and and you know, all they need to do is just take that next step. And while they did, it was just was the wrong direction. Take that step backwards. Right. So obviously I think the the Brewers' ability to defend their title I don't think it's very good purely because it's hard as hell to defend your title in any major sport. Well and you you know look they had they had what you what you

I think you do need is they had the number one in Mizorowski and pitched like the number one right in in the playoffs. And so if you're gonna win as long as he's healthy right, as long as he's healthy, he's gonna give them a shot to go far into the postseason 'cause he's a dominant starting pitcher. I thought it was interesting that all of a sudden guys started fouling him off way more in the the postseason compared to the regular season. And I'm just really interested to see after you got a guy like Skeens who all of a sudden after two years of power pitching in that next season fouled back.

Well the the velocity just fell down. Are you gonna see something like that? He'd tell you was intentional, by the way. Right, right. He'd tell you that intentional. His results tell you it's not intentional because like like his unfortunately his when his fastball velocity went down, his results also went down. I think it was Smoltz also who said, you so Mizorowski who came out and threw the fastest pitch in World Series history, the first pitch of the World Series, a hundred and three point five, which I did not see. but he you know, said basically well you know Mizorowski, you know, has you know

Almost Cooperstown (07:06.638)
the ability to, you know, k keep pumping that he's not looking at the radar gun now as much or at all as he was, that he would constantly look during the regular season and try to outdo himself based upon what he saw. And instead, if you saw the last game of the World Series, which I did, the first six guys flew out against Mizorowski. So no strikeouts through two innings. And they were some of those fly balls were hit pretty well. Right. But but the idea that he got guys out without striking them out was a good point made by by Smoltson and Joe Davis and the fact that

It allowed him to get deeper into the game, I think. Right. That's gonna be the big thing. If he figures out a way where he's not throwing max effort, because you just look at him and yeah, he put on like thirty pounds between last season and this season, he still looks like a bean pole out there. And it's like anytime. Right, but anytime we've seen a guy go out there as a starting pitcher throwing with this kind of velocity, arm injuries have always fallen. And we both keep saying this. Look, you know, the it you you can get to the the human body is not designed to throw baseballs at 102 miles an hour.

Like Nolan Ryan, Mizarowski is the the the the freak freak of nature that just he's just like, Yeah, but he's not like a regular human, so he can do this. And it is entirely possible that that is the case and he's gonna keep doing this and that'll be really cool. Well Nolan Ryan said there's no way I could throw a hundred miles an hour today. He goes, but I am seventy eight years old. Right, exactly. So yeah, I and you know, the the other thing about the Brewers that is the reason that you might be forget about the the batting for a second, is the bullpen was lights out this year and and then Ashby being didn't give up anything.

Pulled an oral Herschiser for that. No, that would well, yes. Yes, Mizarowski's gonna pull the oral Herschiser because he won games set the last game and he's gonna win the Cy Young. But Ashby didn't give up any runs the entire postseason. 15 scoreless innings, which is I just saying that's why he's pulling a Herschiser because for a reliever, doing that over the the postseason is an incredible achievement. And okay, so here's the question how likely is that to happen again? Probably unlikely. Yeah, and when then that's just and right, and that's where you see with the relievers, and that's why sometimes when you have a great season for

From a reliever. That stuff happened. Right, right. And so this is this was my argument for why I I wanted to not re-sign Sean Maniah a couple seasons ago as a Mets. He had his moment. He had his year. And sometimes with pitchers, you want when you have a guy that really performs well, he's gonna he's gonna regress back just the same way batters regress back because he's probably not as good as he was in that season. And then there was probably a bunch of other factors that led to that. So Ashby, he's now had his unbelievable season. He's probably never gonna be as good as he was in this postseason, now.

Almost Cooperstown (09:38.643)
Here. So if some other team comes up to him and goes, Hey, we're gonna give you some dumb contract, I think Milwaukee goes, Okay, yeah, we'll find somebody else. And you know, I I I I want to say this because the the Rays had never won either, right? So the Brewers won their first World Series. They made it the in 82, they had never made it before as a franchise, and and they they finally win. The Rays also have never, and they're a more recent team, have never won their world series. I I don't know that I I would have been okay had the Rays won because having a first-time winner was kind of the fun thing about them.

Right, right. But I am happy for the Brewers, genuinely happy, and a team that, you know, plays in the league that you know the Mets do, so there's certainly a rivalry there. I I was happy for Brandon Woodruff. That that feels like a loose rivalry as much as Well, you know, because the Brandon Woodruff got, you know, in the game, which I he bulled his way, you know, so to speak, into getting into pitching an inning in the in

The in the World Series. So good for him, and he got his ring, and that's nice talking about is after the series, the Brewers manager Pat Murphy is talking to Jake Bauer and he's talking about how he's like, When you get a big contract for the Yankees, don't forget this. You know, you're gonna be making a lot of money. he said in a much more colorful way. Well, that's a good point you bring up because you know there's gonna be some changes as well. And Bowers is a free agent and Pennington free agent, doesn't mean the Brewers won't necessarily sign him.

Did together so difficult is when you get to free agency next year, guess what everybody wants? The guys that just did it. And and you know, if you remember how the Dodgers won, which wasn't that long ago, obviously. About a year ago. Right, and the year before that, you know, they never came back exactly the same the next year. You you right, coming back exactly the same. The Knicks in the NBA, just only because we can compare them as a point of reference, the fact that they came back almost exactly the same is unusual. The difference is there's five guys that play on the court at the same time. Football, if you

look at football. Look at those Tom Brady teams. Those Tom Brady teams were different across. The Patrick Mahomes teams are very different. You might end up seeing similar guys coming in the but when you look into the meat and potatoes of what comprised the teams, they're gonna be different. And that's gonna happen in baseball. So this year, what the Brewers are thinking is not

Almost Cooperstown (11:55.723)
Are we gonna need to sign Aaron Ashby? It's who do we find to replace Aaron Ashby? Right, right. And and it's funny that that, you know, to add to that, that the Bruders had 80 starts this year by rookie. That really stunned me that 80 starts were made. That's almost half the game started by rookies. So they're gonna need to do something pitching-wise to take the pressure off that bullpen because I don't know if you want to go out there and you know and do something like that again. That's the knock-on effect that makes repeating so hard. Is that the bullpen was unbelievable this year? They made 80 starts by rookie.

The bullpen carried them except now next year.

W all that work catches up to them and now guys are getting hurt mid season and the bullpen's not nearly as effective. And all of a sudden that that stalwart thing you could count on to win every game last season just isn't the same, and that's why repeating is hard. But the Brewers have been so good at development, they're probably gonna find guys to replace these guys. Well, they have a better chance at replenishing, I think, because they're not as as reliant on the big stars the way the Dodgers were. So I was gonna ask you, so what do you think? What why didn't the Dodgers win this year? What what was the number one reason?

beside the brewers earning it and being very good. Let's

Yeah, and I think Shohei was hurt. Playing all those years in a row and all those playoff games. Looked like you caught up to them. Shohei w was hurt. Freddy looked old and was hurt. Moki wasn't a hundred percent. And was starting to look old. And so that's I think that's the nervous and this is the thing that you were gonna now have to do as the Dodgers that everybody was sort of taking for granted when we were all whining about the Shohei contract and what it gave the flexibility it gave them is like, Okay, yes, they're gonna be able to pivot and move on from

Almost Cooperstown (13:34.379)
Freddie Freeman and Mookie Bet. Now all they have to do is find Freddie Freeman and Mookie Bet. Or Right, right, right.

Crest has been passed. Right, right. And Freeman is definitely further ahead on the cresting pass than Mookie. Mookie was having a good season, he was injured like the entire year. But I gotta believe you don't want Mookie to play shortstop and definitely the Dodgers wearing the dude out at thirty. And and Freddie's old Freddie did look old this season. He looked tired. He just looked like played a lot of games. Right, right, right. He looked like he was kind of getting ready for the end. And so it's like, okay, yeah, you can count on him to be in the lineup next year, but like he hit one home run.

How many more in the playoffs? Right. Right. You're concerned about that. It's like, okay, well, wait a second. He hit like two he hit like three home runs after June. And I'm sure that a guy like Freeman, future Hall of Famer that he is, as well, his pets for that matter, you know, will rededicate himself in the offseason to make himself as strong and and fit as he can at age thirty-six. And the problem is there's only so much you can do. As you like to always say, Father time is gonna win this one. Right, exactly. You can rebuild the temple, but there's you can only paper over the cracks for

So long. That's the other thing is like not only is his physical capability diminished by father time, his ability to reinvigorate himself is also diminished. He's not gonna he's just not as gonna be as effective at it. It's hard, it's hard to re harder to recover as you get older. Right. And so it's just gonna be tough. But like I I think the Dodgers will look at and they they will probably look at going, okay.

Tommy Edmund. The the the problem for them this year I think also was they didn't have any of the other guys step up and have a season. The Kyle Tucker deal really didn't work out great for them. I agree with you, it didn't. The Edwin Diaz deal was a deal that you made.

Almost Cooperstown (15:35.808)
Yeah, I you know, the Emadia's deal didn't have the impact on their season that they thought about. So so what you're looking at is going, Okay, well we can go and spend money. We ha we traded resources for Scoobyl, but do we really have the money to go and sign him? I don't know. I I mean I had a wild thought going, Just think if the Brewers sign Scoobyl. Scoobyl and Mr. All of a sudden they are then they prohibitive World Series favorites. So

And and you know, you mentioned before that the the Brewers remind you and a lot of people a little bit of the two thousand fifteen Royals. Right the the I just a little team that could, but a small ball oriented team. but I I I I checked that so you know who the number one starter for the Royals were in was in twenty fifteen.

No. Johnny Quato. So so they're not like the Royals. Like No. In that respect, you know, Cy Young, Johnny Quato. So what what the Royals did in twenty fifteen though was show everybody that you didn't need big time starting pitchers and you had to have a killer bullpen, which they did have to to do that. And you didn't need to hit a lot of home runs to win the World Series. You could get by playing small ball, which the Brewers did. It's it's a harder way to go, but it's not impossible. Right, which is why I was saying, you know, before it's like I don't think teams are gonna try and replicate the brewer.

style, I think replicating the three true outcome style is easier. Yeah, well there's there's a lot of talk now in major league around major league baseball. I heard this week in particular that you know the three true outcome thing has been made to look obsolete. and that you know the hitting the ball off a hundred mile an hour fastball or around as guys said the other way has become more important in terms of the skill set because it's hard to pull a hundred mile an hour fastball and guys are starting to think about hitting it the opposite way.

Like, okay, well wait a second, if guys is pumping a hundred mile an hour fastball straight down the center, I could just hit a double the right center. Why why don't I just do that?

Almost Cooperstown (17:30.409)
Right. It's right. You know, and and and like like you said, they were squaring up Mizorowski a little bit, you know, that and had him fouling it off and then hitting some long fly balls. So I think players can adjust and and manage would rather have that happen than have a for nothing thing happen where you're swinging for home runs and like the White Sox did in their playoff series, striking out, you know, f fifty times. You know, you you don't hit the ball, you get the same sitting down. At the same time, let's not get too ahead of ourselves here because if we look at total home runs for the World Series champion over the f last bunch of years.

Milwaukee hit 154 this year, which was twenty eighth in baseball. Last year the Dodgers hit two forty-four, s which was second. The year before that, Dodgers, two thirty three, third. Year before that, Texas, two thirty-three, fourth. It's like, okay, yeah, yeah before that, two Houston, two thirteen, fourth. Atlanta, two thirty nine, third. So it's like, okay. So I think that more speaks to maybe that this year is the outlier year, rather than all of the other years of the past five or six years all being wrong. So I think you're right.

And I I I think that you know the Brewers that are gonna maybe be like the Blue Jays for a little while. And then when the Blue Jays won their two championships and went into ninety-four as two time champion, they didn't have a World Series in nineteen ninety-four. So they ended up being World Series champions for three years, even though they didn't win it for the third time. I wonder how far the Brewers are gonna be able to go because with the league they get with the they get a work stoppage into being defended champs champions for a little longer without without knowing. So yeah, I I I it w it wasn't the most exciting.

World Series based upon when I read the accounts because the Brewers got leads and and sort of managed to make him stand up, and maybe Tampa got close at the end, but not really quite. And then there was a 10-1 game, so that then wasn't a very good game to watch. and the nice comeback in game four. That was that was the game. That was the you that was the Cooper Pratt could have been, you know, legendary. I mean, that was so close. Well, legendary for winning the World Series with a home run and all that. Instead, he's more legendary for.

For being the first player to go s and get hits in the sixth consecutive of passing the World Series. So for a rookie, that's pretty good. and

Almost Cooperstown (19:40.856)
Well, we're gonna talk about awards too. and we'll talk more about I think the labor agreements and things that go forward in in a future podcast. Right i i i it's it's too nebulous right now. Right and it's also just speculation right now. Nothing's really moved forward that have any kind of meaning. So we would just be being like, Hey, so what do you think they might do? But I don't think either one of us think there's gonna be like a shocking turn of events where all of a sudden they've made a deal and it's all over I can hope. Yeah, I we can all hope and I will be hoping for that because the alternative is worse. So awards.

Yeah, well, before we do awards, I have to acknowledge something that happened today here, on Sunday. one of my boyhood heroes who was the number two pitcher to Tom Seaver back on those on the sixty nine Mets, Jerry Kuzman passed away today at age eighty three. And so Jerry Kuzman was I felt was ripped off by Johnny Bench for the Rookie of the Year award in nineteen sixty eight. So I'm a I'm a little kid and I thought Kuzman was gonna win it and like the Bench won it. That's not right. Well yeah

fact it was right. and Jerry Kuzman was the guy who was the pitcher in games two and game five of the sixty nine World Series. pitched a complete game game five and the Mets won. we all remember Cleon Jones on one knee catching the ball and Jerry Kuzman jumping into Jerry Grody's arms or maybe it was the other way around. and Kuzman was the epitome of a very good major league pitcher. Our our classic almost guy. Because if you look at the guy's career, like he had lot of career stats, a lot of

Success in the major leagues that would say, wow, this guy, you know, does he have borderline Hall of Fame stats? and and the answer is I guess if you look at numbers, 222 wins, a career 336 ERA, he had 2,500 strikeouts, those are all nice, good, solid numbers at a time when guys pitched lots of games and lots of innings. So you're gonna accumulate those kinds of things when you do that if you're a decent pitcher. A Hall of Famer he is not not, but a world

Series winner he was, and I was disappointed when he left the Mets because he was there for a long time. He pitched 12 years for the Mets. but he passed us away at 83. you know, condolences to the family and the Met family because we lost one of our real good ones. So, awards. We're only gonna do MVPs, Cy Young's, manager of the year, and rookie of the years.

Almost Cooperstown (22:06.101)
So we'll do other awards. Nobody wants to hear us talk about the Silver Slugger Awards or the Gold Gloves. Or the Gold Gloves. Nobody cares. So we're not gonna do that. So okay. I don't think it's too hard, but we may not agree on everything. By the way, Jordan Alvarez and Zach Wheeler have already been named Comeback Players of the Year. And I'm thinking Jordan Alv Alvarez Comeback yeah, 'cause he was hurt. So I I don't really like that award sometimes. The same thing with Wheeler for that matter, right? He's the good players just came back from being injured. And they're still good players, okay. Like like so anyway, I always think of like

Okay.

crappy year and then had a really good year. I think it depends also on the injury too. Like like you if like Zach Wheeler was coming back from Tommy John. I thoracic out there. But like if you're coming back from like a really major surgery where like like you know like a basketball player comes back from like when K D came back from tearing his a his Achilles or whatever. Like I'm okay with giving him comeback player of the year.

fine and healed the next season. It's not unreasonable to expect him to beat. And maybe Wheeler a little bit more better than because you know coming back from Thoracic Outlet, not a lot of guys have. Right, you don't know exactly what you're gonna get with. So let's start with the MVP. Okay, the MVP. you're AL MVP. I think it's kind of easy because he he just wasn't comeback player of the year, did he not? I think it goes to Jordan. Right, and and and and who who would be the I kind of feel the same way and I felt that way all year long. The problem is there's nobody that

had a statistically a year i it maybe camonero would be the only guy I think that you could kind of point to but I think we're both using the put when it comes to Camonero because I thought of him too like the postseason exploits which you're not allowed to use. Right, right. You can only count the regular season. Nobody was talking about him as being VP before the playoff. So it's just like and yeah

Almost Cooperstown (23:57.684)
The the Rays would probably obviously wouldn't be with the Rays without Camonero, but the the the A Astros might be the worst team in baseball without Albert.

I think you might be right there. And and and so, you know, it's been done before where you can win the MVP and at least the Astros, they won the division with a five hundred record. They made the playoffs. Right. So th that's you know, I I guess better than winning the V P the way Dawson did in nineteen eighty seven when he was with a last place club Cubs. Cubs, yeah. Yeah, and he won the V P so And what do you got for the N L? Well the NL MVP

Almost Cooperstown (24:32.587)
He made it easy for us. Yeah. Shohei made this way easier for us by basically not playing the last like monthish of the season. Or two months. I I I could just give it really isn't close. I could just give it to PC. It really isn't close. Yeah. Like we don't have to have some dumb streak of Shohei winning like some ungodly number of MVPs in a row, which is nice. Peace P Pete had

Unbelievable year from both sides of the plate. When you look at the He had one of the best seasons in Major League history for a position player. I think period. There was some like wild statistic I saw that like when the Dodger when the Cubs played, if Peter Armstrong got a hit, they were like a hundred and thirteen win pace team. If he didn't get a hit, they were a fifty-four win pace team. So wouldn't every team just walk him?

That's the problem. You know who is the biggest obstacle to that? P. Crow Armstrong. Swinging at the baseball. Guy swings at everything. And the biggest thing apparently was just changing his stance this season. And he's just turned. Now it was interesting. He did that late last year. And there was apparently a still a stretch this second half of the season where he lost it a little bit again, but then he found it coming back down. But then in the postseason, but you know what? We don't count the postseason here. Not against an MVP winner, not Hall of Fame. And that he MVP he will be. Yeah, I think you're right about that.

that so all right let's do and did you have a a runner up then I mean if you have Shohei is probably my runner up because like he was better than who would you put up beside that's the problem is is like if you look around the league going who had a league Ellie de la Cruz had a nice year but in because when you say runner up, I'm using runner up as somebody I can put into the same amount of vote if you had to vote give three votes would got another vote.

And I think Shohei is closer to PCA than anybody is closer to sh you know, to Shohei season kind of deal. Yeah, yeah, and and and it's so no Dodgers, right? So aside from Shohei, so you know, no no other Dodgers sort of Freeman, no no

Almost Cooperstown (26:28.066)
No, no, Soto. You know, Soto missed too many games to get upgraded. He probably would have gotten Price Harper. No. So, you know, you have all these guys that, you know, you had a chance when Shohei finally decided not to have the MVP year and Pete Crow Onstar snuck in there and took it from her. Well, that's kind of how probably what Junior felt like last season, where he's like, I had an unbelievable season. It's like, yeah, hi, I'm Aaron Joe. Second. Yeah. Well, okay, go to go to Cy Young here for the American League. Yeah, and I I think it's pretty easy. you know, and and maybe because everybody tells me it's pretty easy.

easy. But when you think about it that the the Yankees camp Schlitler I think is you know I I think we've got two pretty easy Cy far and away the V P you've got two Cy Young's that I think are pretty much s Sam dunks at this point in that you're gonna go Schlittler and the AL.

And Mizarowski. And we already sort of hinted out. What is interesting is you can have four first time winners for the first time since nineteen eighty five. Well, that's a good one. Right. Because you're going have Alvarez win his first N V P the AL, you're going to have PCA win his first V P in the N L, Schlitzer's going to win his first Cy Young, and so Mizarowski. So that's going to the first time that you're going to have nobody winning their second across all four awards. And then even though he was hurt for part of the season and got traded to the Dodgers in part of the season, I don't want to undervalue the fact that Tyrescuble still had a pretty darn good season. Right, right.

And he showed up in the playoffs. Which is why he's going to get a big time copy. Yeah, yeah. You know, sc Scott Burrows doesn't want a salary cap because he wants him to get seventy million dollars or a hundred million dollars a year. Now comes what I think is the stupidest award. Okay. Manager of the year. Okay. Because we just give this to either the manager of the team who we thought was gonna suck or didn't, or the first place winner.

Right. And well sometimes it could be both. Right. Right, right. So in this case, who's your manager of the year? Will Venable of the White Sox. Yeah. Right. It's Will Venable of the Whites. Well and and you know, I I feel bad not giving it to Kevin Cash. Right. Because I kinda feel like, you know, He might have done a better draw. But then that's taking beyond the regular season, taking it into the playoffs. And when you look at the when you look at the National League, was there anybody that was good that we didn't expect to be good?

Almost Cooperstown (28:31.07)
No? All right, that means it goes to drum roll piece. Of course, that's Pat Murphy. Three in a row for Pat Murphy? Is that the way that's Yeah, I that's an interesting 'cause I I don't know in the in the in the National League it's by default because there's really nobody else in the national league. Right, right. Who who would you give it to Dave Roberts? Brian Snicker? Yeah. Would you give it to Noah it's not Snicker? No, no, because they were Walt Weiss. That's Walt Weiss. Or would you give it to who is it, Girardi that came in and replaced Rob Thomas?

no, no, Mattingley. Mattingly never came in and replaced draw. Mattingly, the guy who came in, got him into the playoffs when they weren't playing. They said, No, we don't want you. Do you give it to me and ask Alex Corey? He said no thanks to the Who's in San Diego? Do you give it who's the manager in San Diego? I'm just blanking on it off the top of my head.

Schultz. Shall do you give it to him just for the insane comeback of the second half of the season? I think he's a contender there. But I imagine he'll probably be second, but I imagine it's gonna go to You don't it'll be a pushback that, you know, like enough with the Pat Murphy already. Three times. For God's sake. Somebody else give somebody else a chance. It was gonna be it was probably gonna be Craig Council. If they if Cubs had held on to first place, he would have probably won it this year, but that didn't happen. Yeah. They didn't win. All right, and let's do our last awards. We'll save our our our

most debated one for last. Right. How about the rookie of the year in the American League? Well, I I think this is what's interesting about this one is this one's a lot simpler. I only had one name come to mind I thought of Okay. Okay. Right, right. That was the name. Right, right. He's clearly the best rookie of the year. And and who were the other guys that you could even like who

It's more so that there's not i it's the reverse of the problem in the NL where it's like one guy had a season and nobody really came close to that. Where the problem in the NL is you've got like three guys that played three different positions or and like have three statistically different seasons, and you're like, How the hell do I pick between these guys? Right, right. So so the leader in the clubhouse for most of the year was the Cardinals rookie shortstop JJ Weatherholt. Fan he would have fantastic great first half. Fantastic offensive first half, and the guy is a

Almost Cooperstown (30:34.779)
wonderful defender already. But the problem is baseball seasons are not half a season. They're a whole season. Much like PCA last season, JJ Weatherholt forgot how to hit in the second half this year. I think he had like 218 down. Right. Just just anemic offensively. And that's important.

Because his two competitors, his two chief competitors, Nolan McLean theoretically is in the discussion for the rookie of the year, but that's more because Met fans are putting him there than him having any kind of actual. I agree with you. Yeah, he doesn't actually have a shot. The actual two other contenders for this, and including who I think will be our eventual winner here, are Sal Stewart, first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, 32 homers, and Carson Bench, outfielder, right fielder for the New York Mets. And so it's very interesting because Weatherholt was the best defender.

Of the three. Sal Stewart was the best offensive player of the three. And Bench was probably the best overall between the two. Not necessarily the best overall player, but he was the most balanced of the two. Yeah, and and so Stewart, I I think is slightly favored from what I've been reading at this point. I don't know why necessarily. It's it's you know He had a lot of RBIs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had 32 homers, he had over a hundred RBIs. He's not a great fielder there, but he gave the Reds power and badly needed power.

Really good player. Right, but Benge's season, really good. Statistically, it's just not quite sexy enough, I think, is the issue. He hit like 275, 280-ish. I think he hit like 18, 19 homers. He had like 15 to 20 steals. He played really good defense. It's the kind of gold glove defense. Right, right. It's the kind of season where as a Met fan, you look at it and you go, Wow, I'm really excited about it. But award wise it's

In a lot of other seasons, it's a rookie of the year season. But because you had guys in Weatherholt and Stewart who put up actual exemplary statistical seasons on one side of the ball, it makes it way easier to give it to them, I feel like. Which is why I think Sal Stewart's gonna be the N L rookie of the year. The other thing is is that the award is not who's gonna have the better ML.

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Right. 'Cause if I had to say that between Stewart and Carson Penge, I'd say I'd say Carson Penge is gonna have the better. It's not about it's not about who we think is the better we don't even necessarily think about who is the better player. It's about who had the better season.

Right, right. I I I am hoping that that Bench 'cause it would take voters to look at the full compliment of what the guy did for for them to pick Benge over Sal Stewart and just say, you know, yeah, the home runs are good, you know, the you know the the power was good, but this guy did it on both ends. Mm-hmm. I I just don't think that Benj did enough during this

during the season to get there unfortunately. And I think that's gonna gonna be eventually what costs him in this race and it's gonna be Sow Stewart and he's gonna won't be the one that takes it home. Yep, I do, I do.

Okay. well I think that's what we got for this week. I don't have anything else. Do you? No, that's about it. We're moving into the off season here. The World Series is over, so we're gonna probably be seeing our first, you know, free agent signings coming up here as we move into the They only got a month to do it before everything shuts down. So yeah, I think that we'll probably drop an episode every other week or s yeah, we'll be dropping episodes every other week as we move through here through the off season. We'll be we'll especially as we get any major free agent news and especially as we get any major news in terms of

Of where we're going with the next season in the Labor Agreements, because that's going to be all over the place. Thank you, everybody, and have a great one.