Mike Shildt’s SHOCKING retirement, NLCS preview, ALCS Game 2 preview

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Doubleheader day in the LCS. We're getting the NL and the AL side. I'm very excited about it, and we're going to mostly talk about the postseason, not just during the show. We are also going to talk after the game. The first game, the ALCS Game two matchup between the Blue Jays and the Mariners. Mariners up one oh. We will be live on YouTube for a postgame show, just like we were last night. Letting everyone know real quick before we start, and actually we're going to start with non postseason news, breaking news. But KP is a manager job. Not sexy anymore. Like a third of the league is open.

00:00:43
Speaker 2: It's a very dangerous job. I think it's still sexy, but it seems like you got to win right now or there's no lead up to it. There's no build up. It's win now or get fired. Kay.

00:00:57
Speaker 3: I think it's probably lost a little bit of luster because of the fact that you're just basically a puppet and you're told what to do, and when it doesn't go well, they cut the strings out.

00:01:08
Speaker 1: See Uh, okay, then it is less sexy. I mean that's what you're saying.

00:01:15
Speaker 3: Lost some luster. It's still sexy. I mean it's still sexy for maybe you've never had it.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe if you're a guy that doesn't want to get the strings pulled, it's a win now situation. But if you're a little bit more willing to get your strings pulled, you can keep your job a little bit longer.

00:01:33
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get into this breaking news, and I guess is going to join us in a moment too. But let's hit it charging about charging the mound with the breaking news that Mike Shilt is retired from his position as manager of the San Diego Padres said two successful seasons in the regular season, ninety plus wins, playoff appearances. Padres bounce in the wild card round this time around. But I think that most people expected him to return. KP. You see this and you think, what, well.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: Here retired and is it like retired in quotations or did he really retire? I need a little bit more information.

00:02:14
Speaker 1: Okay, we do have a board we can read really quick and then we will talk to Kevin A. C. From the San Diego Union Tribune. We do have a quote board with a little bit more info from Mike schlt on why he did what he did. He said it is a decision that I thought about during the season and became at peace with over the last ten days. I gave every fiber of my being to help achieve Peter Sidler's vision of bringing the World Series Championship to San Diego. We fell short of the ultimate goal, but I am proud of with the player staff in organization, we're able to accomplish the last two seasons, the grind of the baseball season has taken a severe toll on me mentally, physically, and emotionally. While has always been about serving others, it's time I take care of myself and exit on my terms. Kevin, a c from the San Diego Union Tribune just broke this story. He is joining us right now on FT. Kevin, we appreciate the quick hop on to the show. What is your reaction to this news when you found out about it?

00:03:12
Speaker 4: Be careful how I how I answer that I wasn't entirely shocked. Look, there's always many layers to a story, but I want to make sure that I make it clear that I believe it is one true.

00:03:25
Speaker 5: The things that Mike said.

00:03:27
Speaker 4: He seemed weary. He seemed I don't know if burnt out was something that I would have said before, but now it certainly makes sense. It's a demanding job. I have never covered a baseball manager who lives every single game the way that Mike Schilt does. And you know, working for AJ Preller is is uh. And I'm not saying that it's not demanding to work in any organization and have one of these thirty jobs, but working for a J.

00:03:58
Speaker 5: Prellers is demanding.

00:04:00
Speaker 4: There's a lot of pressure, and so I want to make clear that, like, if I believe that Mike is telling the absolute truth about this, had worn him down.

00:04:12
Speaker 5: So that's where we're at.

00:04:15
Speaker 3: I mean, this is obviously very fresh news for everybody. But when I read an article last year about how A. J. Preller was pretty difficult to work with, was it a more so what you had said about Preller kind of being tough to work with and invested so much into players or was it some of the drama that was around the players or is it just a whole overarching he put everything he had into it, and this is it.

00:04:45
Speaker 4: I think Mike put everything he had into it, and I don't know if that's it right. Like, there's many layers to a story, and some of them have been peeling back, and some of them will continue to peel back. But I I always hesitate because I know what the narrative is out there about AJ Preller, So I always hesitate to just flat out talk about, oh yeah, Aja's difficult to work with, or because I don't think that's necessarily true, or AJ's hard to work for, which I do think can be in the manager's seat can be somewhat accurate. But like, look what AJ's Pereller has done with the podres, look at the success, look at the roster turnover, and how there's a good team. There's a certain way. And Mike Schild came into this job with eyes wide open about that. He was a consultant and an a part time coach. Basically, he was a de facto member of the coaching staff for two years under Bob Melvin. There there were no real surprises about this job.

00:05:42
Speaker 5: So I really do.

00:05:43
Speaker 4: Think, like again, it struck me from the start, and I spent fifteen years covering the NFL in between my baseball beat writing gigs. And he's like an NFL coach who has to live one game a year or a week. Mike lives and just give gives everything every single game, and he's so invested in the players. And as you know, Mike is single, Mike doesn't have children, Mike lives baseball, and I am convinced I think he's a good man at heart, and I'm convinced that he wants to kind of get.

00:06:19
Speaker 5: Work on his well being.

00:06:22
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00:07:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was going to kind of lead into my question. He talks about his physical emotion just to confirm he doesn't have any sort of illness that is forcing him out. This is kind of a preemptive so he doesn't kind of go into you know, cardiac arrests or any sort of health issue.

00:07:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, he volunteered that to me, like when he talked about his health, and we did have a conversation in addition to the letter that he sent, and he made sure that I understood that there was no pressing, serious health issue. But I think all of us who put a lot into whatever the grind of your life is can understand that that does have a can have an effect on your stress and all that can have an effect on your.

00:08:10
Speaker 5: Health, lack of sleep.

00:08:12
Speaker 4: And I think that Mike's you know, season and a manager's job is twelve months a year. It's not like a coach or somebody else. It's twelve months a year. But during that those those eight months, it was sleep work, sleep work, sleep work, Monday through Sunday, basically. And I think that Mike was ready to take at least. Look, we all know what retire means a lot of times. Mike's fifty six years old, hopefully a long life ahead of him.

00:08:40
Speaker 6: He was.

00:08:41
Speaker 4: I do believe whatever else came into play, Mike Shult was ready to take a step off the very fast moving treadmill.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: Do you get any player reactions early this quick from the current team?

00:08:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, Look, I've had some text with players. I don't have anything to report on how they how they feel. I've not spoken or interviewed any players.

00:09:05
Speaker 2: All right, what's next? Where do they go? And a lot of managerial jobs open right now? Where do you kind of rank that Padres job in terms of you know, appeal?

00:09:15
Speaker 4: I'm sure you guys have talked about it, and it's sort of fascinating, right, It's not just a bunch of crap jobs out there. You got the Orioles, the Braves, the Padres. I don't know that.

00:09:23
Speaker 5: Look, I know the Padre is better than anyone. I think it's a good job.

00:09:27
Speaker 4: I think there's a good core coming back, and I think it's a really good job. But maybe some people have the braves at the top, maybe people have the Orioles. I think it's a really good job. Internally, you have a few candidates. It's a fairly inexperienced staff. But Ruby Theebler, the pitching coach, Hass you know, he's talked before about wanting to manage obviously has done a really good job as the pitching coach. AJ Ellis is a was a confidant of Schiltz and is a confidant of AJ Prowlers, and you know, I think people consider him the future manager. Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna put it out there that Albert Pool Hools makes all the sense in the world as well.

00:10:08
Speaker 3: Is that the is that the ilk that you would think AJ Preller would go with in a sense of when you say Albert Pool host no experience, really uncertain, but probably isn't willing to be told what to do if if we're going with that narrative that I know you try to stay away from with AJ, but knowing Athy a little bit, that's kind of his narrative. Do you see it being a veteran or do you see it being like you said, the guys that have little experience.

00:10:40
Speaker 4: Here's one thing I know covering AJ Preller is I never predict or say where AJ Preller is gonna go. Right, Like he hired Jace Kindler, who I believe could be a really good manager, but was not going to be in twenty twenty having the experience level that he had at that time.

00:10:56
Speaker 5: Then he hired Bob Melvin, who everyone.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: Was like, oh man, Bob Melvin is the best, and he's got all this experience, and you got my he hires Mike Schilt, someone like Albert.

00:11:05
Speaker 5: Poohols would do his research.

00:11:07
Speaker 4: And one thing I want to make clear that a lot of the narrative about AJ Preller is false and and in that AJ is not controlling.

00:11:16
Speaker 5: AJ is relentless in his work.

00:11:21
Speaker 4: He is and he's even involved there also, But he is the manager here makes out his lineup.

00:11:29
Speaker 5: AJ Preller might be like, hey, what do you think?

00:11:31
Speaker 4: And then the next day he might be like, well, hey, let's talk about that again. But he is not telling the manager where to put someone or who to play. The manager has probably from my understanding, I only cover one team. I talk to a lot of people, people that were here, people that come here from other places. The manager of the padres has more autonomy than most.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting question for you going back the narratives. Yeah, exactly, I get it. And obviously everything's different from what it was even ten years ago. Right when we say, oh, manager has more autonomy, like the manager of the most autonomy now compared to ten years ago is a major major difference. Front offices have much more of an impact. So keep that in mind for the audience for the entire sport. Question for you on Chilt when he says retirement, does that mean he's done from baseball? Like, to me, retirement means I'm done versus stepping down. So do you get the I don't know. Do you get the inkling that he'll come back to baseball at some point? I mean Tyr Francona retired for what five minutes and then he came back.

00:12:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's why I say, right, we all know what retire often means. And I don't want to speak for Mike, and I think Mike has made it very clear that for now he needs to get away from the grind.

00:12:47
Speaker 5: Do I believe that a man who.

00:12:49
Speaker 4: Loves and here's the only and I should say the only. Here was the shocking part of this. Mike schild loves baseball, he loves players, he loves building relationships, and he's a really good he knows the game. So that made it shocking, like, Wow, Mike is walking away. So do I think that we're not ever going to hear from Mike Shilt in some capacity in Major League Baseball again? No. I believe Mike Schildt will be back working somewhere in some capacity again.

00:13:19
Speaker 5: But for now I take him at face.

00:13:22
Speaker 4: Value that he's retiring and that he needs to take care of himself. I mean, I'm aware of some of the plans that he has coming up in terms of his personal life that you know, hasn't been a whole lot of personal life for Mike Shilts as the manager, by the way.

00:13:40
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the last one for me. I think that actually makes this the most shocking. It's not somebody stepping down, it's somebody that's been a lifer in the sport who really worked in a way that Brian Snicker did. Right, those two got comparisons because they had to really work to get to their spot. Then they had success. Then he moved from Saint Louis to San Diego after the disagreements there. So you're just like, this guy has made it to where he always wanted to be, and you would have expected him to be there until they're yanking the jersey off. So that's why for me it's surprising. But you do have to keep in mind he's a human being and he wants to do his own thing for a little bit. So we really appreciate the time. Thanks for hopping on and for breaking the story and jumping in with us right afterwards. Appreciate it, all right, I'll take care all right, some other manager news here in the break, and then we'll pop in and talk about the Tigers falling in that marathon. Cody Stavenhagen's going to join us in a couple of minutes. Multiple reports just now say that Rob Thompson is back as manager with the Phillies. Not a big surprise there, Krats. I'll give you both so you can react since we only have a minute and a half here. Also, the Angels are talking to a couple others now beyond just Albert Poohols regarding that manager opening no reason yet to believe he isn't the front runner this all. According to John Hayman, Tory Hunter is believed to be on that list and others like Wound. Sam Blum from The Athletic also mentioned Tory in the running.

00:15:06
Speaker 3: I hope they're doing their due diligence. I hope they're not just going a small little ring and Arty is like, hey, I want this. I want that because it's time to see why other people in the league don't think the Angels are very good and not just wow, you know, we're unlucky. If Anthony Rendon was an MVP, we would be in the World Series right now. So I hope they're doing their due diligence. And the Phillies thing, no brainer, no brainer. I'm glad everybody stopped, can stop talking about it. He's coming back topper. Good for you.

00:15:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we know that Arti Marino likes names KP. I mean, he goes after big names all the time in free agencies. So my bet is on a name that we all know. Well, if it's not Albert, it could be Tory. I think it's going to be someone like that.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, you nailed it. I mean, you know, talking to GM there They've missed on a ton of free agents and they've all been big names, so hopefully a big name doesn't kind of equate to a miss on the manager. But they need to kind of change the narrative there.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: Yep, Hey, we're here for two minutes to scrutinize the umpires in the postseason, the good, the bad, the ugly. We will start with the ugly, and some of this will get fixed next year, but not all of it. I'm not going to fix all the misses. So You've got a couple tweets we'll roll out. First off, overall the way that umpires have performed thus far, we have one hundred and seventy six calls missed during the divisional series that included eighteen incorrectly called balls and two strike counts. Instead of striking out, twelve of those batters ended up reaching base. And then we want to give love to Alan Porter, right, guys, he had a standout performance and is he one of the best. There's the umpire scorecard for him in that game. Five alds and skrats. You can take this over since you know how hard it would be to catch a fifteen inning marathon game. But then Alan porter. Calling balls and strikes for that long sounds pretty difficult.

00:17:08
Speaker 5: And it's all different arms.

00:17:10
Speaker 3: It's not like he saw like four pitchers on each side each team throughout seven guys, so the ball's moving in different directions. Big Al from the local PA district right here, he's about thirty minutes down the road. So awesome. I'm kind of hoping I see him in the World Series because Al came up through the minor leagues with us, and for him to he's always been he's always been locked in. He's always been a little bit of a smaller zone, so you get less wrong when you have a smaller zone.

00:17:41
Speaker 5: But that was a good game, KP.

00:17:45
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00:18:07
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00:18:17
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00:18:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I was texting both of the voices the Toronto Blue Jays last night before the game, and I was telling them that was the one game I was really worried about. Obviously, there's four teams left. Every team is really good. But when you factoring they played a fifteen inning game, they probably partied their butts off. They got on that plane, they flew all the way across the country. They get to Toronto, they have to be at the field that day for media Day. They were just on this whirlwind of emotion and adrenaline. You can't really even explain it unless you've lived it. They don't even know where they're at right now. They're just like on this adrenaline high right now. And I felt like the Blue Jays were in prime position. They had their ace on the mound, they had rest, they were at home. It just felt like it was one of those games that was too good to be true. And that's the beauty of baseball, because the Blue Jays were probably heavily favored, they had their ace on the mound, they're at home. They played unbelievable at home. It was a big talk during the Yankees series that maybe the Blue Jays are cheating at home because their numbers at home were so good. But kudos to the Mariners for just kind of riding that emotional roller coaster, that adrenaline wave and going in there and taking Game one.

00:20:00
Speaker 3: This is why the game of baseball is so fun, in the sense that everything was stacked up against the Mariners. In what KP was saying, and I completely agree with him, there will be some type of like hull, like a drop off, and the Mariners to beat the J's again at home, if since they didn't beat him last night, to beat him again, Like the Blue Jays are just they're gonna just turn it up just a notch. The Mariners are gonna have to turn it up a notch too, And do they have that extra gear or is today the day that they go? Oh man, I'm exhausted because the pitcher they got on the mound threw thirty five pitches on his bullpen day in a winner take all elimination game, so you might not be able to go quite to the well like he did in his last playoff game where he threw almost one hundred pitches like Ovian Gilbert's gonna give you what he has, and it's a lot. But this Blue Jays lineup is relentless, and you saw it last night. They didn't strike they didn't strike out a ton, but they put a lot of balls in play early and it didn't you know, it didn't make didn't make Bryce Miller work that hard. So to me, I think the Blue Jays are in a fine position. The Mariners did what they wanted to do and maybe if they don't like let up, then maybe they can get a second one. But the Jays to me, if they just don't let Cal Rowley beat them, I think they take this game.

00:21:30
Speaker 1: Okay, KP A couple questions. First off, I'm a little bit against krats on the contact and the quicker at bats hurting them because I feel like it's part of their game, or at least for half the lineup, it's part of their game. Attacking early in counts. They made contact. It's not like they were a mess, and there was some decent contact sometimes. Also, you square the ball up goes into a glove. One stat that stood out to me, Alex Fast, who's a stat cast guy, said Toronto recorded a babbitt last night in game one of four to two. That is the lowest batting average on balls and play. That's what it stands for in a postseason game this year. It's tied for the fifth lowest for any game this year, regular and postseason. It's one of the fifty lowest babbits for a single game, regular or postseason in the last five seasons. They got a little bit unlucky. They make good contact.

00:22:23
Speaker 2: I think they keep doing it. The Yeah, I think I saw the stat cast thing. I think the first four hitters in the game were like the hardest four exit vilows of the game. Obviously, Springer hit the first pitch out, but that's the way they've been playing all year. I don't expect them to change. And having the ability over the last series to be a Blue Jays media member being down on the field, being able to talk to the hitting of coaches about their approach. That's their big approach is they want guys to be aggressive if they're getting their pitch in their zone, and last night was no different. Sometimes you just got to tip your hat to a pitcher. The guy on the mound is elite, but they play the law of averages. The more times you put a ball in play, the greater chances you have to get a hit. And that's not just individually, that's collectively as a team. As long as they're not striking out and they're continuing to move the ball forward, they're going to be in great shape.

00:23:15
Speaker 1: The other question I have for you is management of when to remove a starting pitcher. I felt okay, but then I looked online and it was a cesspool of why did you remove Kevin Gossman that soon? Did you feel that way and do you think that will impact this series here. I mean that because the Blue Jays bullpen is solid, I wouldn't say incredible, and Kevin Gossman is their top starter. Tray Savage obviously should look good. He looked amazing in his first start for them in the Alds. Do you think there's any concerns that the Blue Jays removed their starters too early as they have PTSD from the Jose Barrios situation.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I think that's what it all kind of stems from. I'm a little hyper sensitive in answering this question because I was just there a week ago and I had a lot of these conversations with John Snyder, and he was very open in his media conferences with the media members about his evolution of being a manager, and he admits that, you know, he was a little bit more of a yes man and he got a little bit more comfortable in his skin where he feels like he is going to make the right decision for his ball club, whether it goes against the grain of what the front office or analytics believe. So I have to trust that maybe there was something about Gosman, maybe the way his stuff was looking, or him being a little bit fatigued. You have to remember we're you know, we're deep into the season. He's throwing a lot of innings. He maybe he's a little bit more hyper sensitive about, you know, him getting his pitch count up, him gonna need Cosmon to pitch again later in probably Game five. There was a lot of decisions that you know, when I'm sitting up in the press box, the game moves really slow, and I remember how fast it was as a player, and it's hard for me to ever kind of even think about how fast it moves as a manager. But I gotta believe John Snyder because there was moves he made in that Yankee series that went really far against the grain and you could see his evolution of a manager and being like, I'm going to live and die with this decision, whether people are going to agree with it or not. So it's easy for me to sit up in my booth and say, yeah, they should have left him in there. That's your ace. But I think he had some internal information that was probably telling him it was time to get him out of the game.

00:25:27
Speaker 3: And maybe it's at that pitch count. I mean, I'm looking back at his last three starts, one against the Yankees seventy five pitches last night, seventy six and when he came out of the game, like, yes, I get it. Had he not walked Julio, does he give him the start of the sixth inning? In my opinion, yes, But as a manager, you have to make those decisions. Some of those decisions are thought about before the game, but then you're visualizing. You're seeing what it looks like. Maybe at seventy pitches, Hey, you know what, let's start using our eye and see what that ball is looking like? Is he missing armside? The ball four to Julio Rondriguez was a fastball left in? Does that mean it looks like you know, his arm slots going down. Pete Walker has been there for a long time. I know, I know Schnein's and Pete are in lockstep and they feed off of each other. So you're constantly getting information that we don't necessarily have.

00:26:28
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00:26:37
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00:27:04
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00:27:38
Speaker 2: Crats his point to crats his point. I think he even talked about that too, Like not every team has a script, but they have an idea of how they want to manage these games. And I think they get to that certain pitch point, like he said, maybe it's that seventy pitch mark, and then the eyeball test starts to take over. And I think they did a good job of that. And you know, as for as much as he got criticized a couple of years ago with the Bear Cacuchi situation, like I said, there was moments in that Yankee series where I'm like, Okay, maybe they should go get him. They should go oh my god, they're leaving him at Okay, at work. And then you think about what they did in Game four. He had to thread this needle that was so incredibly difficult to do. Like you said, they don't have the most lockdown bullpen, but the way they were able to kind of navigate nine entire innings with just bullpen arms and really maximize everyone's strengths, it's hard. It's hard to go against what he was doing. You know, I think, like you said, they're in lockstep. I don't think it's just a John Snyder decision. I think Pete Walker has the respect of that organization, the respect of his starting pitchers in all of his pictures, and he has the respect of his managers. So I think that was a collective decision.

00:28:44
Speaker 1: By the way, I thought it was funny. Bryce Miller thought he was going to be removed from the game in the bottom of the sixth after a fourth pitch to outwalk to Addison Barger, and they were money. Fox was on it. He was like, no, no, no, no, it's Pete Wildworth. Okay, I can talk him into staying in the game. It was great, and then he got one more fly ball out and then they moved on. So I know you appreciate that. Crats we don't. We don't catch that often. Like it was very it was very genuine and wholesome, where it's just like no, no, no, I'm still feeling good.

00:29:13
Speaker 3: But what did he just do? He just walked a guy on four pitches, Like he's sitting there going I forget who he walked, but he's sitting there.

00:29:20
Speaker 2: Like no, no, no, no, no, Barger.

00:29:22
Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm good. Like Barger's Barger's looking to swing. If you walk anybody on this team and four pitches is probably Vladdie. But everybody else they got a bat, have have bat, will swing is there is their motto, and you know, so he knows, he knows. Also he can't let Barger beat him. So there's times when the pitcher and the catcher, But in this case, the pitcher's like, it's okay if this guy doesn't get a pitch to hit, because I know I can get the next guy who's a righty up. You know. So it's it's one of those things that on the field, you always think you're going to get the next out. In the dugout, you got to know these guys and you're you're one hundred and seventy games into the season now, so you better understand exactly what everybody's putting out on each given night.

00:30:15
Speaker 1: KP, Well, I have two for you. I'll see if I can get at least one, maybe the second one in there roof open, roof closed? How much do things change there roof is closed for game one? I'm sure it's louder when the roof is closed, But how does the game change with the roof open, specifically in Toronto.

00:30:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, typically, obviously a little bit louder with the roof closed. The ball tends to fly a little bit more with the roof open, but I do expect a little bit more of a home field advantage, not from the noise standspoint, but the time of the game. With the roof being open, there is some shadows that will affect both the hitters and also the outfielders. That's something to kind of take a look at today.

00:30:58
Speaker 1: Okay, And last one, how much did you use that Traject machine and how much does it factory in for someone like Trey Savage when most of the league hasn't seen him and the Yankees didn't have that.

00:31:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Traject is going to love me for this. It's not gonna help with Tray Savage because his release point is so unique. Traject is going to have to make a bigger version of the Traject and it's already pretty large, but they're gonna have to make a bigger version for a release point that high. Because I had talked about this in the pregame show, I used Traject for like a whole week leading up to facing Garrett Crochet on Opening Day. I knew I was playing. I knew I was facing him, and his release point was so unique that you couldn't get the whole body and their release point on there. I could still see the stuff, but there's something to be said about a guy that's that unique. I need to get in the box and see him. And I think Seattle is going to be in a little bit of trouble, much like the Yankees or facing a guy that they've never seen. You can do all your homework, you can watch a guy, you can look at his X and Y spreadsheet, you can look at all the analytics. You can pick up the phone and call judge and be like what it looked like, But until you're standing in that box, you ain't seen anything like this. Traject would help a little bit in terms of the movement of the pitches, but finding the release point and stuff is going to be very challenging for these guys.

00:32:15
Speaker 1: That is the analysis right there.

00:32:19
Speaker 3: Traject is going to really struggle because his slider actually goes backwards. So trajects like put in the computer what like it's supposed to go slider's supposed to go that way, and his actually goes like this, like it's almost it's not even straight down, it's the other way. So traject's are going to be like, cannot compute more data.

00:32:43
Speaker 1: Fake slider, fake slider.

00:32:44
Speaker 3: Alert left hand left handed slider.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: Yep, but we'll see. Well, I'm excited about it.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:32:50
Speaker 1: I could do two hours on this, but we have two minutes. You guys were talking about how the Angels need to catch up to the rest of the league for the past couple decades. How about air conditioning in the weight room? KP. You were there more recently than Kratz. Is this true? You say? Kokuchi told Japanese reporters after his last start he exited due to cramping because the weight room has no AC. He always has his warm up drenched in sweat. He wanted them to fix it. Team Never did.

00:33:18
Speaker 2: I believe it. I was there. I mean the AC was working there, but the inner workings of like the clubhouse, the weight room, the hot hot tub always had problems too. They definitely need to already definitely needs to spend some money and fix that internal workings at the clubhouse, the weight room, the locker room. I mean, it's a big selling point to get players, and the Angels is very, very far behind from a lot of places I've been.

00:33:44
Speaker 1: This is a problem for literal decades in our game, and some fans online like tell him to fix it. No, no, no, no, it's a multi billion dollar corporation, they fix it. And also it's air conditioning. He's not asking for a new ballpark. Grats. We see these stories off with them, and that's why people are like, what's wrong, I don't get it or whatever. It's just a seat. No, everybody else gets something, and then the Angels act like a third world country with amenities that should be a given. In twenty twenty five.

00:34:13
Speaker 5: There is so much.

00:34:15
Speaker 3: I was just talking to my kids about the fact that when I first made it to the big leagues and I played against the Red Sox, we had to walk across the street to work out. We had to walk across Waveland to work out. Like, organizations have been behind, but you can't continue to be behind if you want to be a Marquee World Series winning organization. And he spends on his payroll, maybe not correctly spend on at all.

00:34:42
Speaker 1: KP right to you about Trey Savage opening up his press conference with a statement, he said, it's sad to see that people close to me are being attacked for my performances on the fields. He just wanted to stand out for the online trolls. We're at an all time high. I mean, it gets worse by the KP. So I don't really know what you can do besides telling everybody to just get off social media. And it sucks that you have to do that, but I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon. People are ridiculous.

00:35:13
Speaker 2: No, it's not going to stop. Good for him, for you know, understanding, he has a platform, you know, biggest stage, microphone in front of him to kind of just go out and address it. Is it going to change anything? Sadly no, but the worst is still yet to come. And I hate to say that because he's talking about the negative effect that his family's received and he threw well just imagine if he doesn't pitch well, you know the type of kind of you know, things that are going to happen to him and his family. But it's a really sad reality we live in where everyone has so much access to not only you as the player, but our information is public. Everyone knows you know, my wife's name, my kid's name, my family members. They're all easy to find on social media too. So this is kind of a learning moment, not only for him but his entire family as he's entering this arena of you know, being an elite pitcher and pitching in the major leagues. This is the negative. This is the negative effect of being a major league baseball player. Ninety nine percent of it's great. This is the one percent that you just kind of have to deal with not only you, but your family and your loved ones.

00:36:17
Speaker 1: Have you guys been seeing Pat Murphy really throughout the entire postseason put on a show with his quotes, like he's quoting Shakespeare also KP. He does this thing where he has anyone new to the media conference, the press conference introduced themselves. So like a day or two ago, he had the Japanese media do it for the first time and there since there's so many of them for more for the Dodger side, so we had twenty five Japanese reporters stand up and introduce themselves. So people say, when Pat Murphy comes in for his daily chat with the press, brace yourselves. It's going to be a while.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: I love it. I mean, he waited a lifetime to be a manager. He's a very successful manager. He's authentic, he makes it fun. I got out of him pulling out his his file of papers against all the matchup against the Dodgers, and he was just kind of reading out random lineups and having the media members guess what year it was from. But I love that he's authentic, he's himself, he's real, he's fun. You know. Sometimes you and I'm experiencing it for the first time as a media member, But I go into those media rooms and it always feels kind of stuffy, and everyone's kind of walking on eggs shells. No one wants to ask an embarrassing question. The answers you're getting, typically from the players are very buttoned up. So he just makes it fun.

00:37:36
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00:37:53
Speaker 3: The reason I'm stone facing you is because that's how soft they are. It's ridiculous, Like I feel, I don't even understand what kind of material it is. It's got to be something space age for your butt.

00:38:06
Speaker 1: Signature super Soft micro Modal fabric, breathable, stretchy, unbelievably cozy, and now you can even get glow in the Dark part of the Halloween line. Right now as a listener of FT, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to fifty percent off at meundies dot com. Slash foul enter promo code foul. That's meundies dot com slash foul promo code foul for up to fifty percent off me Undie's comfort that's made for fall. Let us hit our NLCS preview. It's the Brewers matching up with the Dodgers. There is a massive payroll disparity. You can do all kinds of stats to show the differences between these two teams. Blake Snell alone is making more than the rest of their rotation. So Kratz, I'll start with this. Blake Snell, when asked about the Brewers, said quote, I'm not falling for the average Joe's They're not They got the best record in baseball. They're a really good team. Do you like this answer. It's almost like reversing the psychology back, like we hear your underdog story and we don't buy it. We are treating you like a real threat.

00:39:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's how baseball players think. Nobody goes into a series and is like, oh man, these guys, how could they all have been dfaed in their entire bullpen? Like save it. It's like it's like the whole underdog story, like if you promote it as a team, like yeah, we're just underdog. We just we've never had any breaks. It's like, wait a minute, Like there's a bunch of like first rounders on this team. There's a bunch of dudes that are really good. Freddy Peralt is probably gonna be top three, if not definitely the top five, and the Cy Young voting like they're a good team. They had the most wins. The Dodgers played the exact same teams that they played now, not as many in the Central, but they played the exact same teams and they did not have a better record than the Brewers. So like the underdog story, the average Joe's calls himself the above average Joe's, I think is what Pat Murphy called them. But it's that like you can't as a as a opponent, No you're not, You're not falling for that. The Okie Doke.

00:40:34
Speaker 1: And the mind stars one oh four KP that doesn't sound like an average joe to me.

00:40:38
Speaker 2: Apparently gets I want to try to make a try. I want to try to make a very like a sloppy sentence here, because that's what it feels like. The underdog's the favorite, the favorites, the underdog, the the the Joe's versus the pro like who even knows. It's just it's a fun storyline because maybe the betting favorite is maybe the Dodgers, but the other team at the best record, they're calling themselves the average Joe's. The Dodgers are the super team, but you know they're playing on the road. It just makes for great theater, But none of the players are really buying into it, because when the first pitch happens, they're just trying to beat each other up.

00:41:11
Speaker 1: Here's what stands out to me, Kratz. These two teams are incredibly different in every way. It's not just that the Dodgers spend a ton and the Brewers obviously don't. They're the smallest TV market in the sport. The Brewers make more contact, the Dodgers have more pop. The Dodgers have the traditional starting rotation lined up like this. The Brewers were going bullpen game. In Game two, you'll see bullpen games, I'm sure plenty in this series. They're going to do that all the way until they get knocked out. I mean, I would say the traditional relievers setup for the Brewers is in better shape than the Dodgers. The Dodgers have had to get creative so far in this postseason and probably will have to continue to do so. There are countless differences. These two teams look nothing alike.

00:42:00
Speaker 3: So why are we even playing the game? Why don't we just have it? Why don't we have a salary cap that will just allow everybody to spend the same amount so that all the teams can look exactly the same. No, No, you build your team differently. I'm sure there are things or players that the Dodgers be Like, we would love to have a young Jackson Curio in our outfield. We would love to not have to spend on this guy because we could have that guy. Like this is the name of the game, Like you both made it to this point. One team that is the underdog, that is the that is the not the betting money, is the team that won more games. So if you're the Brewers, you can't say, wow, we're just neat neat grand happy for being here. And if you're the if you're the Dodgers, you can't say, oh man, we're gonna walk all over these nerves because they have no shot because their TV market is smaller. No, it's about who comes out executes in each situation will move on. Whoever wins four games before the other one does will move on. And it's going to be about execution, pitchers making their pitches, not about the size of their wallets.

00:43:15
Speaker 1: I mean, did you see the regular season series? And I know it's not the biggest factor in the world, but the Brewers took all six games.

00:43:24
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I think it's real. I mean, I know the playoffs and the regular season are different, but when you are quote unquote this underdog and you're going up against the big bad wolf, you've got to have this internal belief that you can beat the team, and the fact that you swept them tells you that regardless of what anyone else thinks about us outside of this room, we know and we've proved that we could beat them, and we actually haven't even lost to them this year, So they do believe that they are the better team going in. They can play the media game, the narrative and all this stuff, but inside those clubhouse walls, there's not a single person that does not believe that the Brewers are better than Dodgers, and they proved it in the regular season. But that being said, you throw all that out the window. It's the playoffs. You don't accidentally wake up in the AL or NLCS. Both of these teams deserve to be here. And like Cratty said, you know, if you wanted to build every team the same, put a salary cap in if you thought something would happen, play the game in a simulator. But that's not how baseball works. We're going to find out here at a few short hours. Who's going to be a better team, who's going to win a series?

00:44:30
Speaker 1: Yep, Okay, let's get to some decision making in this series. I mean with the Brewers, it's a cavalcade of how they're lining up pitching. It's almost too complicated to get into with just a few minutes to go. I think the Dodgers side is simpler. And we did get news, of course that Snell starting Game one, Yamamotos starting Game two. They wouldn't commit to when Otani would pitch in this series, but they did say at some point he's going to pitch in this series. Dave Roberts was asked if offense from Shohay in the last round was a concerned Remember the first time show he is ever pitching in a postseason and it hasn't affected him often in the past in the regular season. But this is a different battle when we're talking about October baseball. They pointed more to the fact that they would have Stellan Yamamoto lined up normally and then later on in the series as well. It sounds like maybe Otani only gets one start in a best of seven kp Do you like the way that this is lining up for the Dodgers.

00:45:26
Speaker 2: Once again, every roster is created differently, but the luxury the Dodgers have is they have an abundance of starting pitching. This is what makes sense for them. It makes a lot of sense too because show, hey, win producing is their best hitter in their lineup, and if you can kind of take that little extra stress of trying to get you know, eighteen outs or twenty one outside of the game and just let them focus on hitting, and you have two legitimate aces and maybe a third in glass that who can pitch even before him. You know, that's the way their roster's constructed. They have the ability to do it, so go ahead and do it.

00:46:00
Speaker 3: This was the only picture that the Phillies didn't take the lead against, So why not? Why is he not pitching if it's not about his hitting? Don't you want the best pictures and the best hitters out there. I have a hard time believing Dave Roberts that it wasn't about his hitting, because he's never exerted that much effort in a postseason game. Pictures will tell you you feel different after throwing a postseason game, and this guy's rehabbed to get to this point, and maybe physically he didn't bounce bounce back as much, or maybe the Phillies just didn't let him get any hits. But to me, it's indicative of what they think, who they think their best pictures are, because at this point it's just about who your best pictures are. So they think Blake Snell and Yamamoto will give them the best chance to come back in a seven game series, because that was one of the issues that I thought Yamamoto might need some extra rest, he might need that extra extra rest. So they just think he's their best. He's their best pitcher, and I think you hold show hey out. He starts Game one in the World Series if they make it okay.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: So you think there's some comfort too of him, you know, having to pitch and hit at home, like it's a better routine for him. Maybe he comes out of the bullpen, he has a chance to go on the mound hit as opposed to maybe throw his bullpen a little bit earlier. He has to lead off the game. There's just a familiarity with him doing at home that also plays a factor. They might not come out and admit it, but it is real.

00:47:41
Speaker 1: Let's slap and we will point out that Anthony Santander is out of the lineup for Game two for Toronto. He is dealing with back tightness KP. We also learned earlier today that Nathan Lucas should be okay as he dealt with that tough h little foul tip off the knee. Kratz and me last night were like, I hope that's not a Christian yell. It's knee cap situation. It wasn't no fracture there. But thoughts on this change.

00:48:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was trying to look and see who they replaced him with. I was seeing if Nathan Lucas was in there. It looks like he's BA second. The obvious choice would be Miles Straw, but that also kind of limits what they like to do if Nathan Lucas's knee kind of flares up on him. So it's definitely a story to watch. I have my thoughts about the back thing. Hopefully it's something that's not serious, but it is the playoffs. Got to find a way to get out there for your team, especially knowing what Nathan Lucas went through yesterday.

00:48:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, weird year for Santander. I mean he missed what three months this year?

00:48:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, around that point. Oh, here's the lineup. No, you haven't seen that.

00:48:54
Speaker 1: No lineup? Or yes, lineup.

00:48:55
Speaker 2: Oh David Schneider. David Schneider's in there. So that still gives him the flexibility of having a Milestraw come off the bench. But yeah, David Schneider's in there, hitting eighth.

00:49:07
Speaker 1: Okay, So there's a change for Toronto. Yep, crats hat.

00:49:15
Speaker 3: I hope there's other teams that are out of it right now that really get to watch these posts. This postseason. I'm not saying you have to have like a rooting interest, but the A's have a good core of players. The organization needs to push a little bit, like let's let's go. Just be reminded, Just be reminded. I know you're on vacation right now, but you don't want to be on vacation.

00:49:39
Speaker 2: We got on this one right here.

00:49:41
Speaker 1: What do you got?

00:49:41
Speaker 2: Can we see the side? Wait, it's this side right here?

00:49:46
Speaker 3: Oh wow?

00:49:49
Speaker 2: The future of baseball in Utah.

00:49:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, they're getting a team. In my mind is that's leading the charge.

00:49:58
Speaker 2: There for the the minor league Ballpark's incredible that plays is.

00:50:06
Speaker 1: BETMGM. Players can get an MLB postseason odds boost token. Use that wager, activate it with your bet slit, and if you come through, you get extra winnings. Gambling problem or concern called one hundred gambler. Good luck on your picks tonight. We've got two games to choose from.