ALCS Game 3 preview, Worst postseason ump, Padres next manager?

00:00:09
Speaker 1: Better than box scores. Let's preview Game three of the ALCS. Well Blue Jays fans, if you're concerned about your team in this series, let us introduce you to George Kirby, who is very nasty, very nasty.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Listen, Shane Bieber is not too bad either. No, I gotta be If there's a guy that you needed right now, that that's probably your guy, George Kirby at home. Oh god, Cratzy, this guy has been dominant. He's a name that we've always talked about over the last some odd years. He can pitch and he loves this moment. He loves it, so I think he's ready to rock. Oh boy, this could be some trouble. And you see the Mariners. Guess what they're hitting now, boys, watch out for this squad there clicking on all cylinders. Polanco. I mean Jesus, this guy has been incredible and he's been doing it for a long time.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he throws a ton of strikes, sometimes to his detriment. Either there's so many strikes. He's so efficient, crats that he does give up a decent amount of homers because he's all over the zone. So he can be susceptible at times. He has big home roads blitz. That's probably why the Mariners are lining him up in Seattle. But how did the Blue Jays climb back into this series.

00:01:30
Speaker 3: By not trying to get those homers? Like he's going to be in the zone, So the Jays don't have to like control the zone, but they need to play their game. Don't go to Seattle and go, gee, let's see if the ball is traveling. It's not. It's not, And that's okay because the Jays don't need to live and breathe on on the on the home run like, they don't have to, like, you got your homers, it's okay. But to me, they got they got to be able to win a three to two ball game down in Seattle.

00:02:06
Speaker 1: That's possible.

00:02:08
Speaker 2: Oh, it definitely is. But excuse me. They got to keep them the runs down. So that's the other thing.

00:02:14
Speaker 1: So on their side, Yeah, the bullpen's really the big difference right now for me. I mean, I was on the Seattle radio show today and we were kind of sizing up both squads, and obviously the offense has shown up for the Mariners so far, but the Blue Jays have a solid offense. The thing for me, Kratz is the difference in depth for the Mariners with their bullpen. Their circle of trust is large right now. When Bizardo can give you two scoreless innings every other game right now, and obviously Brash and Mino is at the back end is great, and it's better than what the Blue Jays have. There's a big difference there. They've got a money bullpen to go along with three, if not four, solid starters. If Brian wu comes back, we're actually five, I should say, really, right, because you've got Bryce Miller and he looks better than he did early on in the season too, So you've got five starters. One of them could move to the bullpen and make it even more dangerous.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, the pitching advantage is one hundred percent in the Mariners favor, and so you want to go to a park that the pitching advantage kind of becomes neutral. Not the case in Seattle. But how this has gone like to me, I didn't see them losing two at home like the Jays were playing hot. They were, in my opinion, they were dominating the Yankees for the most part, and the Mariners came in and said, yeah, I get it. We looked bad against a team who couldn't score any runs and the Tigers, but we beat Trek's Google twice, so we have that going on for us. I just felt like coming into the series has not played out the way that is going right now, and to me, that should be scary for even the two National League teams. Whoever wins it that goes up against if it's the Mariners, the Mariners are just getting better as the postseason goes on. They're getting more experience because a lot of these guys don't have a ton of postseason experience. And don't ever bet against the year of Cal. Okay, that's it. If you ever need an answer why the Mariners will win, don't bet against the year of Cal.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: That is true. Do you know who else stands out besides Cal? And of course Polanco has been very clutch for them. I mean, Julio Rodriguez has come up in some big moments. Sometimes you got to look away from the batting average and ops and a short sample during the postseason and look at the timeliness. Nobody's got more timeliness than Polanco. But Julio already in a couple rounds, has had huge, huge clutch knocks for them, and I think that he's a different ballplayer this year in terms of where we'd see him press. I know it often came at the beginning of a season. It felt like it was Julio and the Mariners. Now it's Cal and the Mariners, and it's a one through nine that's legit. So there were times where you'd look at his abs and you're just like, what, he doesn't swing at that, But he does right now for a month or two, and then he gets himself into a rut and then his numbers look bad and things can tumble. I don't think we have that version of Julio anymore. Even listen to a TV broadcast right like a postseason game. You know, Prazinski and Wuno and Adam, I mean, were just on the last round and now you've got Smoltz and Joe Davis. They're not spending a large chunk of the broadcast talking about Julio. He's just one of the parts of this great team. In the past, it was like, well, Julio's got to step up, he's gotta have a huge game, and now he doesn't. But when he does, it's great for them. Don't you feel like this is by far the best lineup he's ever been a part of.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: I would agree with you on that front, But I also think clutch times ask for clutch players, and this is playoff time. This is a playoff guy that finally gets in a little bit and all of a sudden, here he goes he's taking off these phenomenal baseball player big double he had in the bottom of the eighth to propel them to get a victory, and then all of a sudden, the three run homer. Like the guy's clicking on all cylinders and he's not doing it like Cockerly or Fancily if that's even a fancy Jesus fancily fancy at all. Like he's just going about his business and being a ballplayer and not worrying about all the jazz and glitz and everything else. Just go out and play. And it's been very, very nice to lot. I'm making up words here as I go on.

00:06:26
Speaker 1: Cratch you have to use Cockley and Fancily. Never you're about to say.

00:06:28
Speaker 4: Fancily, Okay, Josh Naylor is definitely running the bases, and Fancily is when there's up in each area I don't know.

00:06:45
Speaker 3: Julio Rodriguez may not be that poster child that the Mariners organization has tabbed him to be. I remember, he's also twenty four. Like, this guy's a you know, he's somewhere between superstar and All star status. Like he's a great piece to the organization. But just as we talked about the last three years man this team in the playoffs, they've had the pitching, why can't we add to the offense. I don't think there's anybody that's benefited more from Auhinio Suarez and Josh Naylor coming into this lineup than Julio Rodriguez. Yes, Cal has taken a lot of the weight off of Julio's shoulders, and it's not something I think that weighs on him every day. I just think it's something that teams can't just go, ah, Julio swing at anything, woop woop, just throwing balls way out of the zone and Julio strikes out. Well, why did Julio strike out because he had to get the job done. Now he doesn't need to because Josh Naylor is going to have a ten pitch at that he's gonna steal second base when the team's not looking any slow. Auhenio Suarez has always has a chance to hit a homer. Guy had forty nine bingers this year. So they added this is around and already really really good player in jo it enables him to shine.

00:08:06
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, you want cockle. It is of all, we got the definition. It's apparently a real word.

00:08:12
Speaker 2: It is a real word. Kaka is an adverb. And I was actually right by saying it. The act in an overly bold, arrogant or self confident way. So he's not acting cokally exactly. I was spot on with Rodriguez's term.

00:08:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Mariners offense boom, thank you. Okay, education with Todd father.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: I know, I know I've gotten some I can't believe. I was okay about fancily, I said, fantally, you.

00:08:42
Speaker 1: Can look up while I just mentioned this part about Julio. So I know that the Blue Jays tied the game up, and then obviously the Mariners took off again.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: Right.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: This was a three to three game. Mariner scored seven unanswered runs to end up winning this. But for me, of course, he set the tone. It's a scoreless game where the first inning Trey is savage is coming off a ridiculously dominant performance against the Yankees. Five and a third hit list, eleven strikeouts, two base runners. He looked like he should have been, as Kratz would say, sometimes promoted to another level because this level of hitters could not handle him. Julio's like, cool, splitter hanger, there's one. I'm gonna smash it. Obviously he did make it three nothing stayed back, was able to pull it fair, and I think that really set the tone where they're like, hey, right now, this is the nastiest that they have to offer, and we're still beating it. And the confidence factor was there, and they were excited to crack open the bullpen because that's the weak spot for this team. So super I don't want to say underrated part of that game one, but it was so far back in the beginning that I just want to make sure it gets a lot of left because it was huge for Julio. Did we find out if fancy.

00:09:49
Speaker 2: An elaborate show were decorative way often with excessive ornamentation or unnecessary complexity.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: Mic drop, mic drop, I am smart. Yeah. If you have a spelling bee coming up, Todd Father.

00:10:04
Speaker 2: You can picture you because it's the words that I've never really used.

00:10:09
Speaker 1: I thought that you were thinking fancy and hockey and you just put an illy.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: On really and guess what you put an early on anything? It's like putting ketchup on anything. It'll taste good.

00:10:20
Speaker 1: How you don't you can put an illy on anything. That's how we talk about the ALCS. Well, we're going to keep talking about this series. Can I interest you in surf Shark VPN, which allows you to mask certain parts of your surfing around the web. Or let's say you're somewhere and you're like, I don't need this app to know where I am twenty four to seven that pops up on your phone all the time. Surf Shark can help you out.

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00:11:36
Speaker 2: Were you leading into that dog Eddings? That's while you brought up umpires and San Diego? Maybe maybe Hey.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: If you were catching us on YouTube during the break, I was leading you into this one. Doug Eddings missed twenty four calls in ALCS Game two. Did it matter? No, the matners smacked the Blue Jays. But or some people are going to go against me now and say one pitch could change everything, that's fair. Sure, this was the worst called playoff game since October seventh, twenty twenty two, a game also called by pop Quiz who called it Douglas Ettings. So here's my thing. He had a bad game. Okay, the last time we saw a game this bad was him unless he is much better right in the regular season, which I don't think he is Why is he calling playoff games behind the plate? Even when we get abs okay, ABS challenge system is not going to fix every call. They're not going to fix twenty four misses. You can't challenge all of those calls. And I get it. There are some that are on the border, but there are plenty that are not. What are we doing?

00:12:45
Speaker 3: Why is he calling this?

00:12:46
Speaker 1: I don't get it. Crats, these are big, big misses, and they were timely misses too, for both sides. Why is he calling pitches? Like I get it? We have a process in placement. We got to switch the process. You need the best guys behind the plate call in balls and strikes during the game's biggest moments. You can't do it for every single regular season game. You gotta rotate. You don't have to rotate as much in the playoffs. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me why everybody gets a turn? Why is this everybody to get a medal for umpiring behind the plate in the postseason? It's funny. What's the money part?

00:13:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, the contracts, the union contract that they signed. The umpire's union contract stipulates that it is a rotating tenure based but also a little bit towards the World Series a little bit merit based too. It should be all merit based, because there's no like the A's don't get in because they have neat uniforms this year, or because it's been a few years since they've gotten in. They don't get into the playoffs and like, oh, just get to play a meaningless first round game. You know they probably lose anyway, It's all merit based. This is the time of the season where it's all merit based. Even if you don't think the regular season is merit based, disagree with you. Because the best players stay in the big leagues, the worst players get sent down to Triple A. It should not be different in for umpires. It should not be different in the playoffs. It is merit based. This team played well enough to go and play in the playoffs. They beat the next team. Now that means they played better, so they moved on. You called a great game, You move on. You do this twice. If you have the two worst games behind the dish. Guess what, Doug, you get to still be in the series. But you're gonna be in left, you're gonna be in right. We might even keep you at third base. It's totally fine. I like Doug. He's a little gruff, he's a little you know, he's not quite as talkative as I would like. But you're just not going to get behind the dish.

00:14:47
Speaker 1: That's my point. Behind the dish is sacred, especially during these moments. But wait, there's more. It could get worse for those of you who have a dog in the fight, in the alcs or just want to see balls and strikes called properly. Eddings is ranked thirtieth out of ninety two umps incorrect call percentage this season. Next up will be Ben May in Game three. He ranks twenty first. Okay, he's almost a top twenty ump. Game four, Alfonso Marquez ranks eighty five out of ninety two MPs. Game five Marvin Hudson ranks eighty out of ninety two MPs. What the hell are we doing?

00:15:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't know, don't know what I think.

00:15:30
Speaker 1: I need to talk to somebody. Somebody has to answer for this though. You are out of touch with reality because there are a bunch of people watching the game on its biggest stage and laughing or complaining and saying why is this managed this way? If you come out and say Hey, listen, all the umps would have been on strike forever if we didn't play it out exactly this way. At least we got an explanation.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: There's not I think part of it is younger guys too. They're not letting him get a chance. I don't know what their iota is, what their messages to these guys, so I don't know. I don't know. They've got to get better.

00:16:10
Speaker 1: It's very frustrating to it.

00:16:13
Speaker 3: I know what the message is. You hang around long enough, your salary is going to continue to go up. You don't make a stink, your salary is going to continue to go up. And if you're really in there long enough, we'll give you a couple of playoff appearances, which there is a financial bonus for each round. It it's a scale, it's a tiered scale that's going up.

00:16:36
Speaker 1: Watching last night's game made me think two challenges for abs challenge, even though you keep them, will not be enough. We need three, at least your postseason games. We need three. It's too important, and there are too many misses that are blatant misses. Game two of the ALCS was that example. Gary Phillips covers the Yankee says, there's a lot of talk about Tucker Bellinger and who the Yankee will go after. I mean, they probably are going to go after both and end up with one would be my guess. But who do you think they should pursue in the offseason.

00:17:11
Speaker 2: I like Cody Bellinger, man. I thought Cody Bellinger was an absolute beast. I thought he did well. He made some really good plays. He's a great defender, and he's got instincts too as well. I thought he'd fit in well when he first came in. You know that happy, go lucky charm that you know, laid back charm. You didn't know how it was going to be in New York. And I thought he did exceptional, So I mean that would I'm not saying Kyle Tucker is a bad ballplayer, but I feel like Bellinger is one of those carefree guys that's not going to worry about the big, big lights, you know in New York, and I thought I thought he did exceptionally.

00:17:43
Speaker 3: Well, it'll be cheaper. It'll be cheaper for Belly, and you don't need Judge back in center field. Judge needs to staying right. I don't know that Tucker's giving you all those all you know, the innings that you want in center, or that Jason Domingez is going to play center, or how long is Tran Grisham? You know, to me, I think Bellinger gives you a lot of flexibility, especially since you know you don't you know, I don't think you play another season with Judge in centerfield. I think we've we did we did it once, let's not do it again.

00:18:18
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Aaron Judge should not be in.

00:18:22
Speaker 3: Centerfield, but Tucker. But Tucker's not center. You're right, Yeah, that's what he said.

00:18:29
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: That's what he said.

00:18:32
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:18:37
Speaker 3: What do you think would be the best type of manager for the Potters to hire here?

00:18:43
Speaker 5: Well, one of the first things if I'm a J. Prilla, one thing I'm going to do is I'm going to consult a little bit with Manny Machado. I'm going to consult with Tatis. Maybe those are the two premium guys as your positional players. You're gonna need to get a sense of what's needed at this particular time to allow these guys to continue to go out and be who they are. You know, I know, Manny's probably is in the midst of getting to the back end of his career more so than the front end. And so it's gonna be important to have that and understand, you know that those relationships amongst those type of players. When you bring a guy in, as you stated before, the Tingler situation and I think Green.

00:19:44
Speaker 1: Situation, that's just not gonna work.

00:19:46
Speaker 5: They're just gonna they're gonna blow that over.

00:19:48
Speaker 2: Man.

00:19:48
Speaker 5: They're gonna respect it for a little bit because it's the head, but they're gonna blow it over because they think most of the time you're blowing you're.

00:19:55
Speaker 2: Trying to.

00:19:57
Speaker 5: Force your action upon us, establish yourself opposed to a guy that can walk in is like, okay, we're gonna be all right, man, We're gonna.

00:20:07
Speaker 3: Be all right.

00:20:08
Speaker 5: Like, you know, like, okay, let's see how this goes. You know, a guy who has experienced and who's been around the game for a long time, who has experienced many different aspects.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: Hey, that's Kyle Blazer and Mike Cameron on Friar Territory, part of the FT Network, covering the breaking news on the manager front this week that Mike Schultz is stepping down, retiring from his spot managing The Friars How Youth Fell also part of that show on select episodes as well. Were you surprised when you heard that news after two successful regular seasons and decent postseasons? I mean not this year, I guess in the wild card.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: But yeah, that it always brings you a question. I always think whenever something happens, there's something else going on, and not necessarily true all the time, but there could be a little problem. There could be an issue, or there could be maybe I'm looking too far into it. Maybe it's just my time is now. I don't want to be around anymore. So yeah, it was strange. It came out rather quickly, and you know, I think they're trying to put this to bed and move on. So I do like that they're going to consult with some of the players. I think that's fantastic, but ultimately they got to make their decision.

00:21:18
Speaker 1: Is that normal? Do teams talk to players when they're figuring out their manager? I feel like some front officers are like, no, screw that, we're not asking them.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: If I remember, I think Joey Vado talked to some guys, some brass maybe Brandon Phillips, But no matter what, they really say they're going to make the decision on their own, but I feel like they just want to maybe a little reassurance and hear what the players have to think. I think you should because they're the one that you know has to be around them most of the time. But still it's a business decision at the end of the day. I don't know.

00:21:55
Speaker 3: The manager has to work directly with the general manager. To me, you gotta be as a general manager, you got to figure out what kind of player personnel you have. Can't have Manny going in there going yeah, you know who I really love Flarity, Ryan o'flairity, Ryano Flaerty, that.

00:22:14
Speaker 1: Just Flarity, Ryan Flerity, Erico Flerity.

00:22:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was my buddy when we were with the Orioles. Like now, all of a sudden, does Flarity have enough enough cashish? Does he have enough like up to be like, hey, Manny, I need you to do this or that, and'd be like whatever, bro, Like I used to play with you. Like there's there's there's a fine line in there. I'm not saying you don't ask the players. I'm saying, as a general manager, whoever you're picking, this is gonna be a J. Peler's last manager. You can't keep going through managers, keep your job no matter how well you do, and not and not win the ultimate prize when this much money is put out there. So ultimately you you got to own this. As a J prelers, you got to own who he picks.

00:23:01
Speaker 1: I actually think he could have more. I think he's so highly regarded within their circle, and there's still like a little bit of ownership strife with the potential lawsuit and all that. So they're just letting Peler do his thing, and I mean, you could have a situation like this pop up again. I mean, Schiltz was a shocker. He thought he was going to be their manager for five to seven years.

00:23:21
Speaker 3: No, I hope, I hope they have. I hope they take their time with this one, just because this is fresh. We just had Kevin Ace on like he's still on our screen. It was so fresh, like, so this is fresh news, and so I hope they take their time and not say, oh, we got to take the best available guy, because I think there's somebody out there that's going to fit into that mold that they want, that has experience, has that ability to kind of roll with the punches, and I know a couple guys that are interviewing right now, and they would be tremendous, tremendous candidates, and it's not dudes with zero experience.

00:24:02
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk a lot about all the manager openings and fillings, I mean, as we get the news, but then hopefully there's still some remaining after the postseason that we can cover too, So actually a lot of those might get filled during that break between the CS and the World Series.