Who wins AL West? Tigers struggles, Dodgers rotation dominates, London Series cancelled

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to a brand new live edition of Foul Territory. I'm Alana Rizzo in for Scott Braun. That is Eric Kratz. That is Aj Pierzinski, who is on the call for a game tonight, so he is doing the show remote. We appreciate you being here.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: Aj.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Don't forget guys. You can tweet us a hashtag ft live and support our show and style Foul Territory shop dot com. It is time to charge the mound. Let's charging about all right, you guys. The Astros they are back in first place, the Houston Astros the Seattle Mariners continue to jockey for position in the Al West as they both fight for their playoff lives. If you will, Mariners a ten game win streak, AJ, that came to an end yesterday. They were on a good run. But the Astros are back in first what's your take.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: Well, I asked, I asked you guys yesterday, if the Mariners got a little too hot, too quit right. So the Astro sweep the Range and pretty much end their season. And now they get the Mariners coming into Houston, where Houston has played really well this year. So we all think the Astros are going to get in. We're not sure who's going to win the division. But this was a huge three games for the Astros to sweep the Rangers. But yeah, I mean they're they're basically tied right there. Seattle has one extra game to play and it's all gonna come down to these next three days. If one of them sweeps the other, one's in big trouble, and whoever wins two out of three is going to put themselves in a nice position to make the postseason and win the division.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: Eric are the Rangers cooked?

00:01:34
Speaker 2: Yes, they're cooked.

00:01:36
Speaker 3: They're a little a little too late or a little too late, yeah, whatever, I don't know. I was trying to figure out what the what the saying is a little too late?

00:01:46
Speaker 2: Thank you? Thank you?

00:01:48
Speaker 3: Yes, I think it should show them for next year that a little bit of a shot of energy. I'm not saying it has to be young guys coming up with inexperienced but I'm saying maybe a shot of maybe it's okay to play like with your hair on fire a little bit, because I think that's what they've done recently, or maybe they were winning and that's why they've had this different fervor when they're out there, but I would say they're cooked.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: Agy at what point are we going to stop? But I'm not saying that you did. I'm not saying that Eric did. I'm saying we as a collective, at what point are we going to stop? Like counting out the Houston Astros, I mean a couple of years ago they didn't. Yeah, Well, I don't know. I mean I was like, maybe this isn't the year that they make a push for the postseason, right, maybe this isn't the year that they can do it just because of the subtractions of Kyle Tucker and the absence of Alex Bregman and the decimation to their starting rotation. And here they are. I mean, they've won five of their past six games. They're only one and a half games behind the Tigers for the number two playoff seed now in the American League, which comes with the first round. By So I went from they're not going to make the postseason too, they may get a first round by how do they do this?

00:03:01
Speaker 2: Well, they have Altuve who's been a constant there. They brought back Korea, but it's something about the chemistry and the culture that they have in Houston. What it is, I don't know, but the one consonant has been Jose Altuve through all of this, so he does something. Maybe he doesn't get enough credit as a leader, but he's been through all of the ups and downs. And not forget he came up when they were terrible and survived that and now is going to go to the Hall of Fame. Is one of the best astros of all time and he deserves a ton of credit. But Joe a. Spada has taken over for Dusty Baker, who took over for Hinch, right, Dana Brown. They've been through Lunau and I forget the guy who got fired after they won a World Series where they brought in Dana Brown. But it's crazy how they've done this year after year and there's just something they figure out a way to win, and it's amazing. It's an amazing run. And if you're in Houston, guys, enjoy this because you might never see a run like this ever ever again. Look at the Atlanta Braves. For all those years, people just took it for granted, it went away. They had another couple run a year's run, but it hasn't been the same enjoy this run, the Astros run if you're an Astros fan, because it's something special. I don't know what it is. I don't know what they do there. They seem like they do a lot of the right things. We all know they did some wrong things. But all they do is win and it is a fun thing to watch.

00:04:17
Speaker 1: And last night, ek they did it with Christian Javier on the mound. He looked really good. Six innings, five hits, two earned runs, one walk, four k's okay, eighty eight pitches, fifty four of which were for strikes, so he was throwing a lot of strikes in the zone. Thirty nine swings and nine whiffs. He retired Eric ten of the last eleven Rangers he faced. Now his era, it's not sexy. It's about four and a half. But the point is, as you do your final tune ups going into the postseason, Javier looked good.

00:04:43
Speaker 3: He looked good. It's only a seven start this year, is did they think, oh, yeah, this is definitely one of the guys that we have to have for the playoffs. Maybe not when he's coming off of a essentially season long injury, because he's got seven starts. Now you'd love to have somebody with a few more starts under their belt. But maybe he's just rounding into the pitcher that they know he can be, and that is gonna have to step up. You know, they wanted Spencer Ranghetti to come back. That's not happening, and so what are you gonna get out of them? Hopefully they can build them up so his length is gonna be long enough that they can kind of jump over that little bit of a blip that they have in their bullpen, because their bullpen's a little bit thinner without Hater in the back, without Suza out there.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: And you say, hey, I.

00:05:34
Speaker 3: Start like this pushes them really far in the right direction.

00:05:40
Speaker 1: If you take a look at the American League West standings, guys, as you mentioned, Texas is cooked, right. I mean, they're five games behind everybody else as far as that's concerned, sitting at third place. We know the Athletics are eliminated fourteen and a half games out and the Angels are now eliminated officially as well mathematically done. So obviously it's gonna come down to Houston and Seattle.

00:05:59
Speaker 2: Duh.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: But how much of a focus, of course, I mean, this is a massive series starting between these two teams tomorrow half game back. I mean two weeks ago, we would have thought that. I mean, it was a foregone conclusion. We were kind of complaining as a sport that, oh it's so boring. We know all of the teams that are getting into the postseason, this, that, and the other thing. There's no competition. And now both the AO West and al No West. I know that AJ said the Mets are in and that's the thing. But this is exciting. I mean, this is a massive series with with you know, it could swing either way when you're only a half game out.

00:06:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys always right here, it could swing either Well no, but I have to look at the slack, and my slack is down here, so what I mean. Sorry, I'm trying to make sure that we, you know, blah blah blah blah blah and what talks over each other. So listen, I'm not at home, Okay, So I have stuff that I'm literally doing the show on a I don't even know what this thing is in the visiting booth here right because I tried to do it by the and I was told I looked too good, so I had to move about it darkened me. Oh, darkened me right, because I was too bright, shining like a diamond. But so here's yes, this this, this series is gonna probably design the aos. And I still believe that the playoff teams are set, just not in what order. Interesting thing though, the Tigers they suck right now, they are not playing well. Can the Astros or Mariners catch them and steal the by Now that would be a story because no one had that in their in their car.

00:07:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would not have imagined that the seating would be a factor at this point when you were thinking. I thought the Tigers back at you know, a month and change ago, we're going to run away with everything. We've talked about how there's no thirty teams that really as a clear cut favorite as to who's gonna win this whole dang thing. But I thought the Tigers were the most complete team this year, kind of wire to wire. What has been since you brought it up, AJ, What do you think has been the biggest thing in terms of not their collapse that's not fair, obviously they're getting into the postseason, but what have been their most recent struggles? What have you noticed by watching that club?

00:08:07
Speaker 2: Their pitching, hasn't been as great other than school has been School has been good. He hasn't been as amazing as he was the first half. Their pitching hasn't been as good, their bullpen hasn't been as good, and they haven't I mean, it's kind of been a whole thing. Hobby Bayaz has kind of gone back down to reality from the first half. Uh, and they're not scoring as many runs. It's just kind of been you know what it seems like to me, It seems like they're knew they were gonna win the division, so they put it in cruise control, and now they got to figure out a way to turn it back on before the playoffs start because they've been in first place pretty much the whole year. They knew they were gonna win the division, and they just it's kind of like the Dodgers. The Dodgers just cruise, Cruise, Cruise. Let's we get to the postseason and we'll turn it on. The Dodgers have that pedigree. The Tigers don't. Tiger's too young, Eric young control.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: Can you flip a switch in this sport? Because AJ was saying, like, you know, cruise control that type of thing. I think it's so hard to flip a switch in baseball.

00:09:00
Speaker 3: I think it's hard to flip the switch in baseball when you're not playing every day. When you're a guy that plays every day, you start getting into that rhythm and routine and then playoffs start and you're just like, yep, i'll I'll bump it up. It's never about effort, like guys always give effort. But when you're a platoon guy, and I think the Tigers do a lot of platoon pinch hit matchups, that stuff has to go really well. And if you're if you're just off a tick in those situations, you're gonna get dominated because you're coming off the bench in the sixth, seventh, eighth inning expecting Carry Carpenter, Matt Verling, somebody who hasn't been in the game to come up with a big hit. And that's tough to do on a consistent basis when you're not out there in you know, diamond cutting situations, in times when like it's pressure and you know, I gotta get this job done. They've been up by eight to ten games the entire season, so they've been kind of just in those situations, maybe giving guys opportunities to say, okay.

00:10:07
Speaker 2: It's not all platoons split.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: Maybe aj Perzinski's giving some lefties some lefty lefty at bats, But these last week, this last week and a half, it's good for these guys to be able to be Hey, whoa, whoa. We got to make sure the Mariners and the Astros don't catch us. But the biggest thing for the Tigers is tonight's start. If Scooble gets through it healthy, I don't know how many innings they wanted to throw, that will dictate more than any platoon, any hot or cold lineup. Scooble Tonight will be must see TV for everybody in Detroit if they want to do what people thought a month ago they could do and win a World Series.

00:10:49
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00:10:49
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00:11:01
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00:11:20
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00:11:49
Speaker 1: Don't look now, but here come the mighty Dodgers as far as their starting staff is concerned. And it has nothing to do with me being a Homer. It is fact. Okay, look at the starting staff in terms of eras and August First, This from underdog MLB Snell lights out yesterday seven innings looked great. Yamamoto has been good all season long. Glass now went healthy. Amazing she and making a case Kersh. There's news about Kersh by the way. Today, I don't know, we'll see Otani. Otani has the worst era. I understand he's not pitching as much as the rest of them. Whatever, Dodger's rotation leads the majors in era during the span. You guys, this is a bullpen that's been roughed up. Not withstand they're not the only ones, I get that. But the starting staff is healthy and they're back together at the right time.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: Eric, It's like they planned it to be this way. It's like they planned for somehow we're going to get through one hundred and sixty two games and some of these guys are going to go down, but somehow we got twenty starts out of all of them, and now they're somehow all magically healthy. This is what makes the Dodgers ridiculous. During that time, they were losing a lot of games, but Max Mounsey came back, and now the offense picked it back up.

00:12:58
Speaker 2: This team is.

00:12:59
Speaker 3: Hitting them all cylinders right now, and to have that in their rotation, they could be back to back World Series champs and do it two different ways with their pitching staff.

00:13:09
Speaker 1: Eric is right.

00:13:10
Speaker 2: Aj.

00:13:11
Speaker 1: They have a two game lead in the division over the Padres and a five game lead in the Wild Card. Are they back to back this year?

00:13:19
Speaker 2: The number one of my Power Rankings, Alona. They have been all year, and we all know how much I love Power Rankings. Number one foam finger for AJ.

00:13:43
Speaker 1: You guys both played in this game. When it was okay for the starters to go deep into ball games, it was okay for the starters to face the order of the third time through. Blake Snell kind of did that last night. He said, you know what, you are not coming to get me out. Dave Roberts was on his way. Alex Vessia was halfway to theud out of the bullpen. Blake Snell said, not today, dog, not today. Alex Vessio went back into the bullpen. Dave was like, all right, I'll trust you, and he did it. And the emotion guys from Snell, So that says two things to me. Blake Snell is healthy, Blake Snell is a gamer, and Dave trusted in his guy that goes a long way, does it not?

00:14:18
Speaker 2: Aj Uh. Yeah, it's amazing because normally the Dodgers are five innings, just get out, there's the script. But to see him allow guys to go deep, and they've been doing this a little bit more this year, it's kind of awesome. They're letting their guys go. Their bullpen has been beat up. But don't worry about them when they put Shohey in the bullpen. Oh wait, no, they can't. I don't want no. Wait one, well, but I don't listen. The Dodgers are going to be fine. That's again why they're still number one in my power ranking. That's it.

00:14:50
Speaker 3: I said it yesterday. I said yesterday. Blake Snell. He knows exactly what he's able to do when he's able to do it, and he's more athletic on the mound than guys. Give him, give him respect for Like, this guy's thrown in the postseason and he's for his career. He's been historically better the third time through. I said it yesterday. I love that. I saw it last night. It shows that Doc Roberts is watching the show. But this is what you want out of your this is what you want out of your elite pittures. And they have three elite pictures these guys. Like in a normal when AJ and I were coming up through the big leagues, if you had a Blake, Snow, Yamamoto and Glass now at the top of your rotation. And Kershaw is getting older, so it's a little bit different. But those three guys would piggyback off each other in the sense that one dude goes six, the next dude's gonna be like, hey, Yamamoto, check it out, I'm going seven, and then glass Now will be like, hey, Blake, check it out, I'm going eight. Now. It's like, well, I don't know if we're gonna let these guys. I don't think the players have changed. It's kind of like people who complain about kids who are punks now. I don't think the kids have changed. We were all punks at one time. It's the parents who have changed. So in baseball, it's the coaches, it's the front offices who have changed. These guys are all gamers. All three of those dudes at the top, I would say, are gamers. And I think this year they're gonna have to let him eat because exactly what I.

00:16:20
Speaker 1: Was gonna ask you, Eric, Are they gonna let them eat because of the usage to the bullpen? And if Blake Snell is out there shoving, or if it's glass Now, or if it's Yama or if it's whoever, are they go If he's having that much effectiveness? Do they in the postseason, say nope, you can't face the order the third time, three you're out of here. Or do they let him go?

00:16:39
Speaker 3: What was the score last night when Blake Snell said, I want to stay in.

00:16:43
Speaker 1: The game three nothing.

00:16:46
Speaker 3: If it's if it's one nothing in the playoffs, no, Dave Roberts does not let him, does not let him go. If it's two nothing, there's nobody on three nothing. There's nobody on I bet he lets them get one runner on. That's the difference is they're never going to allow that starting pitcher to put them in a situation where it's tied or losing in the postseason or yeah, if he's out there. But to me right now, those three guys the way they're pitching. You saw the stats of their of their era since August, like everybody but showed but Shohey is under a three and a half er. Who in the bullpen can match that? So it's like, is a ninety percent of Blake Snell better right now than one hundred percent of who they're going to bring in VESSI A, you know, I think he needs a little bit of a little bit of a grace period. He's coming off the il he was one of their best pitchers until they broke him because he pitched too much. Is it Blake Trinan, is it Tanner Scott? Right now, they're not pitching better than ninety percent Blake Snell. And if you think at the end of the game Blake Snell is ninety percent, you keep them in there.

00:17:55
Speaker 1: Well, Vesia came in, had a clean inning, which was nice. But I have to be honest with you. When Tanner Scott came in in the ninth, you guys, he had a five to nothing cushion and I was still nervous And I feel badly saying that, but just based on what he's done this season, at what point, you guys, do you have enough of a resume, enough black type on the back of your card, or just enough experience, enough service time in this game to be able to do what Blake Snell did. I know he has two say Young Awards, but at what point do you have enough to say I'm staying in go back to the dugout.

00:18:28
Speaker 3: I think it would be a hard time telling Nolan McLain when he's pitching. If Nolan McClain was pitching the exact same as Blake Snell. I think Mendy would be able to read the situation and go, you know what, I think you're right. I'm gonna give you this chance. This is what the regular season is for for playoff teams. But you have to be a manager that's willing to lose your job because you do something like that. And I don't think it's necessarily as much dirt in your cleats as it is trust from your manager. And sometimes that can be built in three or four starts. Rarely, rarely, but I think it's you know, it's not like, oh, this guy's a ten year vet. No, you got to be able to read it in the situation because if a pitch isn't working, if a pitcher isn't throwing well, and you're the manager, it's your job to say we're taking we're taking you out. You've seen Boonie Boonie go out to the mound how many times this year with Max Fried on the mound, with Carlos Rodin on the mound, and they've convinced them to stay in. They've been wrong and they've also been right. So that's how that's how you earn that trust is you do what Blake Snell did last night. Next time, Dave Roberts is like, I don't even need to go out to the mound. I don't even need to talk to him about this.

00:19:46
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00:20:12
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00:20:37
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00:20:46
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back. The Mets drew three million fans to Cityfield this season, guys, the first time since the ballpark opened in two thousand and nine. It represented a thirty eight percent overall increase in attendance from last season. Just a bitch at the time, up with their lungs because the Mets have imploded and they're hanging on for dear life. Good fans, Good fans. I mean you love to see it. I mean baseball's not dying, Baseball is only growing in popularity. But you love to see it. I wish there was a better product for them on the field.

00:21:18
Speaker 2: AJ one Sodo effect one so so did this. I mean one Soto bringing back Manaya, bringing back Alonzo. It just shows you if you spend money, people come out and watch your team if they think you're going to be good. So this should be a lesson to other owners. Unfortunately, for fans, they're going to complain and wine. Oh Man, ticket prices are going up because Juan Soto's here, because we paid so much for Manaya. There's no direct correlation.

00:21:44
Speaker 3: I got. I got reamed out by a fan the other day. I was at Chicky and Pete's and he was like, why do Phillies ticket prices go up the last two years? And I was like, because the stadium is packed, so city field is packed. Ticket prices are going to go up because there's a thing called supply and demand. So fans, good job coming out, But you just made your season ticket prices go.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: For next year?

00:22:10
Speaker 1: What's Chicky and Pete?

00:22:12
Speaker 3: What's Chicky and Pete crabby for eyes? If you don't know, find out.

00:22:17
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.

00:22:19
Speaker 3: Next time you're in Philly or Vegas or they're up and down the East Coast.

00:22:24
Speaker 1: Now, can I live on the East coast? Can you door dash that?

00:22:27
Speaker 4: To me?

00:22:28
Speaker 1: Is that a possibility?

00:22:29
Speaker 2: That might be an up charge?

00:22:34
Speaker 1: We're about six weeks away from Halloween, not even maybe five weeks. But there are some teams guys that are already dead dead is door nail in the graveyard if you will? Some teams have already been eliminated. We'll start with the Rockies. They set a franchise record for losses one hundred and ten losses amid a seventh consecutive losing season. We talk about it a lot, right, it's the ownership groups that don't want to spend money. It's a beautiful bar park, it's a tremendous city to go to a game in. They have a lot of young players, which producer Lady was talking about earlier, a lot of young players, but they aren't necessarily a pierzinski good players. Is that fair? No?

00:23:10
Speaker 2: They yeah, I mean they have one hundred and eleven losses. It's they had a chance to catch the White Sox, but they got a little hot, so they're not going to probably do that. But yeah, I mean they have a lot of good young I mean they have a lot of sorry, they have a lot of young players. Good that's gonna be seen down the road. But they still haven't figured out how to pitch in Colorado. They still haven't figured out how to win in Colorado. And the owners back there going, oh, we invented blue Moon. We don't need to do anything else. We just have a million two and a half million fans show up to the park every day and watch the other team bash homers against our young kids, and when they if they do have anyone good, we trade them away anyways. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what do you say about the Rockies other than yeah, they have you know what, Hunter Goodman. He's a good player, He's a good young player.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: They just they just don't hold onto guys. They get rid of their their superstar players. It is I mean, I'm not going to use the excuse said it is difficult to pitch there, but they just to me they don't have an emphasis on winning and if it's a possibility, they're loyal to a fault. They rarely go outside of the organization for anything and bring any sort of new perspective of the other twenty nine teams in. And I can appreciate loyalty to a certain extent, but it's almost the same definition of insanity. Yeah, I mean, it's a tough situation for this team. Rockies number two prospect Charlie Condon projected today you next season third overall pick in the twenty twenty four draft, made it up to double a the season, sixty grade power, third rank first base prospect in baseball. I mean whatever, all right, the Pirates. The Pirates, It wasn't just Derek Shelton obviously, who lost his job in the middle of the season. They still have Paul Schiens, AJ and e K. But they don't have much around.

00:24:47
Speaker 2: Him because you have to build around him. You have to build.

00:24:52
Speaker 3: You can't just say, oh, you know what, we'll take this guy in a draft. Look who we produced, Look who we produced out of our minor league. Like they're not able to promote and from within and get enough value out of the guys just in their minor league system to be able to be a playoff team. What Andrew McCutcheon and Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Cole and all these guy Garrett Jones, Neil Walker, the guys that were from the minor league system that came up in twenty ten twenty eleven to make that run for the Pirates were supplemented by guys in free agency. Now, did they spend you know, did they spend one hundred million dollars in free agency? No, absolutely not, Bob Nutting does not allow that. But they have to supplement around them. They went and got Russell Martin, they went and got AJ Burnett, They went and picked up Justin Ornau at the trade deadline. Even though he wasn't like a big, huge piece of that team, he was one of the pieces. They have such an amazing core, different from what the Rockies. The Rockies, I think, just really don't care about like anything other than this is the Rocky way and we're gonna do it and nobody get in our way, and it just is not great. The Pirates, they have a pitching cords that could be all home grown. They could potentially in a year and a half have five guys in their starting rotation that are homegrown that I would consider all above average big league pitchers. You have to supplement them. You have to do something, maybe trade one of them, to be able to get a big league player right now. And they just don't do it because those players cost too much. So it's Bob Nutting getting in the way a j How.

00:26:39
Speaker 1: Do we get O'Neil Cruz, who can hit the ball a mile and a half, how do we get him to stop striking out?

00:26:47
Speaker 2: You don't because straightcouts don't matter. Strakeouts don't matter.

00:26:55
Speaker 3: It's expectation. It's expectation. I know that Shelton had higher expectation of.

00:27:04
Speaker 2: Cruse.

00:27:04
Speaker 3: They wanted him to they wanted him to not strike out as much. But if an expectation doesn't meet reality, the player's never going to change. That is like one of the best avatar as Andrew McCutcheon called him players in the league. He called him an avatar, like he is a built player and for him not to unlock it, in my opinion, is the expectation of the organization and also the player. The player has to be wanting to be like, hey, you know what, I'm not going to make ten airs in center field even though I'm learning the position. I'm not going to strike out as much. But if an expectation doesn't meet reality for this organization, then you won't get the most out of him. I think there's a lot of teams that would drool over having O'Neil Cruz, and.

00:27:51
Speaker 2: I think he would probably succeed somewhere else.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: And he'll probably go someplace else because they don't keep superstars around a long time. AJ If you're looking at the Nationals in search of a new GM, it seems like they've kind of been retooling, rebuilding. Are they selling are they not? They end up getting rid of Mike Rizzo. They have an interim manager right now. I mean, there seems to be a lot of chaos at the top to even figure out what's going on on the field.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: Also, they were supposed to be sold and they haven't been sold yet, so that's another you're going to add that to the list of things. Also. But for the Nationals, I mean, what's their core going to be? Is it James what is it c j Abrams? Is it Dylan Cruz? What are they going to be? As at kayber Ruiz, who's there? Who's their their core going forward? And then pitching wise, I mean they have to figure out the pitching SiGe. Is their pitching hasn't been Mackenzie Gore, is it Brad Lord? Who's who's on their pitching SIGs? Remember when they won not that long ago, twenty nineteen, they brought Intureser, they brought in Corbin, they brought in Jason Worth, they brought in you know, Wilson Ramos. Yes, Mon Soda was from the organization. But they also supplemented, they traded for a trade turner. They supplemented their their positions with money and with making the right trade. So who's the person that's going to make those decisions because the Nets when they win, they had to spend money. They haven't done that recently. They also helped that they had Strasbourg who was the one to one and he worked out for that one year. So I don't know the Nats, they got a lot to figure out. So the most important thing is are they selling the team and who's going to be in charge of baseball ops on a day to day basis?

00:29:26
Speaker 1: Is that something you see happening within the next couple of years, or I mean is this I mean, what are we looking at here? Before the Gnats return to any sort of decent conversation.

00:29:39
Speaker 2: Who owns a team? Figure it out? Figure out who owned they're gonna do the learners are going to keep the team, then great, but find a GM and or president of baseball offs and knows what they're doing and get him in there and give them a year or two to figure out what they have and go from there.

00:29:54
Speaker 1: Eric, I think this is the team that bothers me the most that I'm talking about the Angels, Like, this is a team that hasn't gone to the postseason? What in eleven years? It's been eleven seasons, the longest drout in Major League Baseball, the third longest route in major North American sports. They had some unbelievable talent. I understand Arty Moreno does not put money in pitching. He loves the sluggers. He wants to pay the sluggers. You can't really blame Mike. I mean you can't say, oh, poor Mike drout. He chose to go back there, he chose to stay there. But Sam Blum has absolutely torched this team. He writes for The Athletic on the Angels. I mean, what do you do? They're not going to sell, right, We discussed that earlier this week. I mean, does this team ever get back to some sort of relevancy.

00:30:39
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean because they have good young talent. Out of everybody on this list. They do have money, like they have spent money. Have they spent it correctly?

00:30:52
Speaker 2: Not really.

00:30:54
Speaker 3: I think peramin Asian has done what he is able to do. I think he he told Arty Moreno, hey, we need some slug in our lineup. So they went out and got some slug You know, it may have kind of hamstrung their roster construction a little bit, but if you have to take away what Arty Moreno gets in a way, then I have to say this organization, out of all the others that we've talked about, has one of the best chances, only because I still truly believe in Mike Trout, but I also believe in some of the young guys that they have up there. I think Christian Moore is still learning at the big league level. I think his skill set is he will be an above average second basement in the big leagues.

00:31:39
Speaker 2: I think Neto is a.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: Really good shortstop, and clearly from what I've heard of guys there, he is a team leader.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: Shanawell.

00:31:48
Speaker 3: He's gonna not give you as much power at first base as other teams, but he puts together a professional at bat. And I love Logan o'happy friend of the show, and I think he's gonna have just continue to learn. You're watching a team that probably has guys that should have been getting triple A at bats, but you're watching them in the big leagues. So I think out of all these teams we mentioned so far, I think they could be the closest because I also think perryman Asian is a really good GM that's not afraid to say I don't need five years. I want my two or three years. And I get what Ardie Moreno's not gonna allow me to do. I'm still going to find a way to get guys, good guys in there, and that takes a two or three year period.

00:32:30
Speaker 1: Byron Buckston, guys is five hundred thousand dollars richer after grounding into a fielder's choice in the fifth shit, I could have done that. He just made his five hundred second plate appearance, which triggered a PAIDA is thirty one plate appearances away from another five hundred k. Good for him. I love seeing Byron bucks and get these incentives because one of the biggest things with him is just being able to stay, stay healthy and stay on the field. Did you guys have incentive laden contracts in your day too, Like if you reached a certain amount of Okay, so I'm talking to aj Eric whatever, if you're your sister out of you know, innings caught or you know RBI or whatever. I mean, take me through some of your contract negotiation situations.

00:33:08
Speaker 2: Aj I never wanted incentives. I just wanted the money upfront, so I didn't I tried to stay away from incentives. I just wanted the money up front. I'm like, I'm gonna play one hundred and twenty of one hundred and forty games and go from there. But one year I did have them was twenty fifteen at the Braves, and I started hitting them and they came to me and said, yeah, we're not going to play you in September because you've already started to hit. And then the other catcher what didn't do so good? So like, you know what, We're gonna have to play you after all. So I started checking some of the bigger ones off.

00:33:36
Speaker 1: Now were they in attention when they made you, like when they needed you again?

00:33:41
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:33:41
Speaker 2: Ok they didn't have anybody else. Okay, not at all. They got at all. We were terrible.

00:33:46
Speaker 3: They got hamstrung by it. And I did have incentives. One time I signed a minor league contract, got traded over to the Brewers, and the Brewers were like, what about these incentives the Yankees put in there. I mean, my agent put in this like crazy, like if he gets fifty at bats in the big leagues, he gets twenty five thousand. If he gets if he gets one hundred at bats in the big leagues, another twenty five thousand. I made it all the way to two hundred at bats and two hundred played appearances in the big leagues, and I'll never forget looking up and I saw on the board it said two hundred and one plate appearances and I was like, yeah, I got it to cash.

00:34:22
Speaker 2: So that's awesome.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: You got a load. I think I'm pretty sure Lucas Giolito hid an incentive yesterday too by pitching four innings. I think he activated his option. It was like a mutual option that was activated for him and the Red Socks for next year, like nineteen million or something like that. I mean, that's that's awesome. And Walker Bueler, prior to him getting defayed by the Socks and picked up by the Phillies, was like making five hundred thousand every certain amount of it. I mean, that's that's awesome. That type of stuff, to me, is so motivating. I mean, obviously, if you're doing it in a winning fashion for your team, that's great.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: I think the money should be upfront. I would say no player gets incentives, but when they do work it out, like Buxton's he was injured a lot, the team said we'll still pay you an absolute voat load if you stay healthy, and he said, you know what, I was injured a lot and I will stay healthy.

00:35:13
Speaker 2: So good for both of them. Guys.

00:35:14
Speaker 1: This is a bit strange to me. I mean, we are a major, major, major player in North American sports, but Major League Baseball apparently is calling off its London series for twenty twenty six due to scheduling conflicts, Like how does this happen? By the way, so they deemed it impractical to convert the field of baseball. Now, we've played in London before. We just did this, right, an expensive and labor intensive process. In the timeframe that would have been available. The Yankees and the Blue Jays were aiming to play gentlemen in the middle of June at London Stadium, home to the Premier League soccer team west Ham United. But apparently, AJ did you cover that game in London when the Cubs it was.

00:35:52
Speaker 2: Two years ago?

00:35:53
Speaker 1: That's right, Okay, So I mean it was.

00:35:55
Speaker 2: Awesome, It was awesome.

00:35:57
Speaker 1: I would have loved to have been there. I would have loved to think. It's money, Eric, is that the issue? It's not. You don't think it's the time frame? What do you do?

00:36:04
Speaker 3: What is this an expensive and labor intensive process.

00:36:11
Speaker 1: They but aren't they making a boatload of money on it?

00:36:15
Speaker 3: Maybe they're not, And maybe that doesn't Maybe if you're putting a lot out because they have to change the pitch to a baseball field, maybe they didn't find enough cash hesh to come in. No way, they're like, ah, you know what, it's just too close. They knew how long it was going to be to the next soccer game, and how long it takes to get the field back in shape to play soccer, So.

00:36:41
Speaker 1: Why even announced the damn schedule? Then until you're certain this money.

00:36:45
Speaker 2: I hope they would get it.

00:36:47
Speaker 3: Oh well, I have a hard time believing it's any reason other than that. Because this is a thing to grow the game. This grows the game in another country, just like football is going Sal Paolo and Arctica, Germany, like France, like they're going everywhere for the NFL. They're not doing it because I don't know, maybe we'll break even. They're doing it because it grows the game. It makes them cash. But Major League Baseball says, you know what, if we're not making enough, we're just gonna blame it on the fact that, ah, we can't get the grass to grow within the eighteen days.

00:37:24
Speaker 2: They knew how long it was gonna be.

00:37:26
Speaker 3: They knew how long it was gonna be to make the pitch perfect for a Premier League game.

00:37:31
Speaker 1: That's a good movie, by the way, pitch perfect. So West Ham's final Premier League match of the season is scheduled for May twenty fourth, twenty days aj before the first planned baseball game. The conversion process took eighteen days for Major League Baseball games in London in twenty twenty four. MLB field consultant Murray Cook said last year conversion also required eighteen days. In twenty twenty three, he said, while in twenty nineteen the process took twenty one days. So we're talking about a matter of days, which I'm not saying is insignificant. But I find it odd that they could not have like have figured this out or have just pushed pushed the series. Like I don't know, I don't understand like this whole scheduling thing, and I understand the fairness part of it too, but it just seems odd that they would announce it, advertise it, and then pull back on it.

00:38:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like it could work if they really wanted it too. That's that's it. I don't know, I don't know. I know this. When I went over there was great, and I would have loved to have gone over there again because it was. It was an awesome vacation to go over there do a game. Basically, go over to Europe for a week or longer and do a baseball game and enjoy your time over there, because it's a beautiful place if you haven't been. But I would have loved to have gone. Didn't look like it's happened.

00:38:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I loved it. I mean, of course, Manage League Baseball is going to have a large international presidence, of course for the twenty twenty six World Baseball Classic, which I love that tournament. I don't know how you guys feel about the WBC, but I absolutely love it. It's just a bummer. I would have loved to have gone again to continue to expand this this game of ours in London. So we'll see what happens in twenty twenty six across the pond. All right, guys, when we come back, we're gonna be slapping some hands. We'll be right back. We are slapping hands, and we're talking about the San Francisco Giants. They beat the Diamondbacks yesterday boys five to one and eleven innings to prevent getting swept. But furthermore, they're still hanging by a thread. AJ So you're saying there's a chance, Well, you're not with the San Francisco Giants, But I mean, do you at this point as a player, if you know you're probably not making it, do you just want to be put out of your misery already or are you still hanging onto that little tiny bit of hope that you got a shot.

00:39:44
Speaker 2: You're trying to hang on to all the hope you can because you don't want the season to end and you're hoping you can figure out a way to get really hot. But yeah, it's tough for all these teams just because where the Mets are at. And the Mets are winning today already, so it's gonna be tough. I've said it for a while now. The Mets are going to get in. Now, can they do damage that's a different story. But I firmly believe that these teams are chasing her. I'm in Cincinnati, you know they're playing the Cubs. The Cubs clinching, you can maybe sneak a win with Hunter Green on the Mountain night, but it's gonna be really hard to get in.

00:40:15
Speaker 1: Verlander looks pretty good, Ekay turning back the clocks a seven inning shutout, only three hits and two walks. He's kind of going backward and says he wants to pitch next year. I think he's about fifty two years old right now. Coming back in twenty twenty six looks pretty good for the old guy, huh.

00:40:30
Speaker 3: I mean, he's got his ERA below four for the season. At the beginning of the year, it looked like he was walking one step out the door. Now he's firmly back in the room. If he wants to pitch next year. The way he's finished down the stretch here, I think it's been seven or eight starts, he's proven that, you know what, I'm ready to go. Maybe he's got to figure out his off season routine, or maybe he did too much early in the year, who knows, or it was too cold in San Francisco, no idea what it was. He's a veteran, he knows. But if he puts together one more good start like he just had, he's going to get himself another nice ten to fifteen million dollars one year contract.

00:41:16
Speaker 1: It probably was cold in San Francisco. That's a freezing place to play. Matt Chapman. Patrick Bailey aj some bright spots for the San Francisco Giants this year. I mean, is this perhaps a way that Patrick Bailey can have a more of a breakout season next year, can kind of jump offensively to the next steps. Four homers in his last thirty eight abs to give positive signs that he can kind of take it to another level.

00:41:39
Speaker 2: And needs to. He's always been great defensively, and they were talking about him being a star behind the plate. It hasn't happened, So hopefully he made. This is a good sign and he can take the next step for the Giants and they can start trying to get back to Buster Posey's winning ways when he was a player there. They were led by a great catcher and every good team as a good catcher.

00:41:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, it hasn't quite been the same since Buster Posey retired, right, Eric, You and I are in all red today, but I see that Krat's hats is read. Of course, who you repping the Phillies today? Oh, Cincinnati, They still got a shot huh.

00:42:10
Speaker 3: I feel like I feel like we're all in Cincinnati because we're there with AJ. So I appreciate AJ. Letting us be Cinci fans today. Little Skyline Chili.

00:42:19
Speaker 1: Gonna say, Skyline Chili. Are you eating it? Yeay or nay? On the Skyline Chili boys? No, No, it's so bad you guys, like who puts cinnamon on chili on spaghetti.

00:42:34
Speaker 3: Lauren Albanize goes to a lot of ballparks and even around city Field and she tries whatever the delicacy is there and she got it, and her first her first words were after she ate it, she goes, oh, it's like it's like wet and soggy, and it was like a perfect, perfect explanation of it.

00:42:57
Speaker 1: Skyline Chili. No, thank you, all right, guys, thanks for us everything today. We appreciate it. Foul Territory is back tomorrow. Don't forget. Dodger's Territory is next coming up at four pm Eastern. There are some rumors that Clayton Kershaw is announcing his retirement. So join me and Clinton see us today for Eastern. Foul is back tomorrow at one. We'll see you then. Take care, guys, trive them mad.

00:43:24
Speaker 2: All right.

00:43:24
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