JTP: Silent Bats, Jake Casey & Jon Morosi

0:00Well, that's up there for the worst ball games of the Blue J season. Maybe up there for the worst offensive performances of the season for any team. The Blue J's get blanked. Tudor nothing by the athletics in Sacramento. They lose the series and that zero is not the case of, oh, JT Gin was good today. Oh, Jacob Lopez has been really good lately. That was a bullpen day from the number 30 ranked pitching staff in all baseball. They are 29th in ERA. They are 30th when we account for the fact that like park factors and things like that. Because while Sutter Health Park is very, very hitter friendly, it is still not course field. He's the only other team in the stratosphere of the athletics as far as ERA and other metrics go. So it is, I mean, it was supposed to be a bullpen day, right?

1:02Brady Basso ends up pitching the most innings that he's pitched in years because the Blue J's couldn't get his pitch count up, couldn't get any action on him. They end the day with six hits, three walks, a big zero in the run column now. They did get help out of town. The out of town scoreboard went about as perfectly as the Blue J's could have asked for. Baltimore be Cleveland, Detroit be Minnesota. Seattle be Texas, even the white socks and asterisles lost if you start looking at division leaders that could fall into the wild card mix. So the Blue J's didn't see their playoff odds ding too much, but certainly a missed opportunity to only take one of three against the athletics and again get blanked in a bullpen day from the worst pitching staff in baseball. Tough one, but we got to turn the page. There's a lot of baseball left to play and as doom and gloom as people were online yesterday, still only one game out, still got about a one in three chance, depending on where you look to make the playoffs later in the show. We will talk to our pal Jordan Schusterman will go, we'll look at this race as well, but we'll also go around baseball where show, hey, Otoni has hit the GIL air and judge has returned and more Jake Casey of the Vancouver Canadians is going to join us 11.

2:06Those Vancouver Canadians walked it off in the tent that the NAT last night to take a two game to nothing lead in the Northwest league championship. That is a best three of five series. So they will have a chance to become champions for the second time in the last four years as early as tomorrow in Eugene, John Maros, who also joined us before we get to any of that, though, shy to VD of sports and that joins us now. Shy, how are we doing, buddy? All right, let's go down Blake. Not a lot. The way I kind of intro the show you want to talk about the very, very bad Toronto Blue Jays game. Or you want to just spend 20 minutes on the Vancouver Canadians, maybe maybe win in a title here. We can go either way. I think it's got, look, it's really interesting. At this time of year in a major league season, right when you're in this kind of a playoff race and just how much the leverage swings from day to day. And you know, people were flying so high during the Kansas City series because Jays had moved into a playoff spot and we're looking great and all of a sudden, you know, you have one bad series and the sky's falling and that is September baseball.

3:09It's never as good as it seems until you clinch. And it's never as bleak as it seems until you're out. So it's all part of the wild ride. Yeah, well, another part of this too. And I want to talk about some of the specifics from the game, but they're, and I don't want to, you know, anchor myself too much to how people are reacting on social media or in the text line on this show and things like that. But there is a, an uncomfortable is not the right word. There's just a weird reality here where it does not feel like the Blue Jays have played particularly great baseball for a sustained amount of time. I know they have one of the best records in the year since the end of July. They also haven't won more than four games in a row. They only have three sweeps all season. They just lost a bunch of games to the royals and athletics and things like that. So there is like this sense that they're not that good. There are 500 baseball team this late in the season. They haven't played all that well. But there only one game out. And if tomorrow goes a certain way, they're sitting in a playoff spot and there's kind of a reset there. How, how do you kind of handle that dissonance, I guess, of, they're not particularly

4:10good. There, I don't know that there'd be a lot of faith that they could go on a deep world series run. But the way the seasons played out, it's right there. Well, I think there's a few things that play there. First, it starts with the American League not running away from them, right? The only reason the Blue Jays are in the spot is because the American League is so across the board remarkably average. And that has allowed them to stay in the race through some of their periods of struggle throughout the course of the year. And so there's that like every team that they're competing against is a different version of them, right? Where some, some pluses, send some flaws that keep them from taking off and separating from the pack. So there's that piece to it. Two, the reason that the Blue Jays haven't been able to get on a very extended run. And obviously they did one, they got, they, they needed that to get to this point, but they haven't been able to win more than four games in a row is because they have some inconsistencies in their offense and they have some gaps in their rotation.

5:13And these things catch up over time and prevent you from winning on an extended basis. And that's why the Blue Jays fell 10 games under 500 at one point this season. And they have been obviously much better to pull themselves up from that hole. But again, there are, those issues didn't just disappear. They had some, some players play better, but there's still some structural issues that they are working to overcome offensive inconsistency. And they get gaps in the rotation being key among them. So I think that if you can take a step back and rationally examine it, like a lot of this makes sense within the context. And really it's par for the course based on all the different factors, both internal and external. So yesterday the offensive struggles were a bigger issue than the pitching ones. They did another bullpen day where they only allowed two runs. And I know it wasn't pretty, but it's continues to be like a low three ERA when they run bullpen days. They managed zero runs on the other side.

6:13It's the ninth time they've been shut out, which sounds like a lot, but it's actually like right in the middle of the league teams get shut out a lot in an era where 700 OPS is good. But this is obviously a team that has not even when the offense has been a little better as it has since the end of July, if we look at OPS or way to runs create a plus or whatever, still not a ton of power there. Still not a lot of extra a lot of slug and extra base hits there. If this is a team that is going to figure it out over the next two and a half weeks enough to get their get in the race and be in the wild card spot, what is kind of the offense have to look like? Where are the gaps from like acknowledging they're not going to be the 2025 blue chase. They're just that I don't know that that's that's in them anymore, but they have to be a better version of the 2026 blue jays than we saw in that Oakland series, Okamoto, home runs aside. What needs to be better? What is actually achievable for this offense that we didn't see yesterday and haven't seen enough of? Really, it's the formula that we've seen since the trade deadline, right?

7:16Where it's really good execution with runners in scoring position. It's the occasional long ball and making and getting that on a steady basis, which is really hard because it's hard days where the pitching match might not be great for the team or guys might be grinding or whatever the case may be, but it's hard to consistently execute in that way. Now, the thing that we've said all season long, it continues to be true that if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is capable of picking this team up and carrying it on its back for a stretch, but again, he's working through his challenges this year and that may or may not come around on a consistent basis. So I think really it's what we saw the last month and change where it's they're putting pressure on teams, they're forcing mistakes, they're executing really well in different situations and taking advantage of the opportunities because if you're not going to hit home runs

8:17on a consistent basis and this team is not hitting home runs on a consistent basis, they have only three players with double digits in home runs, which is really remarkable. And so if you don't have that element and you're not slugging consistently, then you've just got to be really good when you do get runners in scoring position. Yeah, it's a tough, you know, that's a tough way to do it because we know that over the course of season, your performance with runners in scoring position is going to be pretty close to your performance overall. And if you're not a great offense overall, it's tough to believe that you'll be a team that succeeds with runners in scoring position. Now they it's a weird one when we look at things like, did you score the runner from third with less than two outs? Did you advance the runner with nobody out in a runner? Second, the J's actually like great okay to good. They just don't get in those scenarios very often. So it's tough there. Shive when it comes to the individual level obviously, Oklahoma hit a couple home runs in this series, Alejandra Kirstman, good lately. It seems like, and I understand why everyone wants Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to turn it around.

9:22It will be, if it happens, it will be a key in the J's playing better offense. In retrospect, does that little blip that he showed in Cleveland, where we reach in a little bit trying to find something there? So it looked like it went back to right how it's looked for most of the season in this series. Yeah, I mean, I think like even in Kansas City, there was one game where you hit three balls at 110 or more, including I think there were a couple that were like 115, 116, and he got nothing for them. I think one of them even turned into a double play for my memories, serving me right. So you just continue to see flashes, but it's not getting there consistently. And is there, is that just, there are some days where he can fight through the physical things that he's been playing through all year, a little bit more effectively than others. Perhaps is it just him capitalizing on a few mistake pitches that just happened to end up in the zone? Perhaps like, nobody has a real answer for this.

10:25If there was a real answer for this, somebody would have provided it a long time ago. And the J's would have been all over it and Vladimir Guerrero, Gina would have been all over it. So it's in a lot of ways, I don't want to say sort of feeling your way through the dark, but it's just working with whatever it is that you have. And so you're going to get some of the variances there. And like, I think there's a natural inclination to kind of think because he's so talented that when he has those games, it feels like he's always just on the verge of unlocking it because he is that good. But whatever it is this year, he's just not unlocking it. And again, it remains in a nigma, something that the blue jays have thrown as many resources that as you can. The Guerrero has thrown as many resources as he can and not come up with a steady answer. It's a tough one. This is maybe not an answer, but I'll throw it at you anyway. While we're talking about O44 with a strikeout and a really hard hit out, Anthony Santander are going to do a rehab game yesterday. He was the designated hitter for Buffalo. He went O44 with a strikeout and one well struck ground out.

11:28Look, he's obviously not going to be the solution to the blue jays offense overall. But how closely are you monitoring how he looks both offensively and he D.H. yesterday, but I believe he's going to play left field today with Buffalo running at a time there in terms of rehab games. But we went through this exact thing on this exact timeline with Anthony Santander. Last year, what do you keep an eye on in the box or in the clips? I think the quality of contact and the harder thing to judge from the box score, maybe you can tell a little bit from videos, just the bad quality, what's he taking, what's he swinging at, how on time does he look. But he's really trying to jump into a speeding car from a standstill with what he's doing. Right? Because even when he was doing this last year, he still had, it was like a month and a half, two months of late appearances early in the season in a full spring training. Like he's really got nothing that he has a base this year. And to suddenly come in to Guy's heart who are in full season form in the midst of a postseason race,

12:32like this is a really, really tough task. But the blue jays are in a situation where like he is the profile that they are exactly looking for. A dude who hits home runs, proven run producer can hit from both sides at the plate. So he's platoon proof. It's really just exactly what they could use. So they're going to try to make this work and they're going to see if he can beat the long odds and get himself in a position where he can factor in some way, shape or form. Like how much, like are you automatically going to slot him into the batting order behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I don't know that that's fair to anybody right now. But he's also traditionally a slow starter, which doesn't, you know, push in his favor as well. But if he can find it in some way, it could be the thing that the blue jays are desperately looking for because again, like the fit is just so perfect.

13:35If he can be at the Nissan 10 there and that is the big if. Yeah, there aren't a lot of guys who have hit 40 home runs so you can acquire at the end of September, but a lot of ifs there. So shy, weirdly, you know, there hasn't, there haven't been as many questions on the office of side in terms of who's going to play and there hasn't been nearly as much turn. All that's been on the pitching side. But the pitching has far outperformed the hitting. That was also the case yesterday in this dual bullpen day where yes, they lost, but they only give up to over eight innings using six different arms there. You had a great piece earlier this week coming out of a conversation you had with Michael Lorenzen. And the jays turned to Michael Lorenzen yesterday and didn't go perfectly. He gave up the two runs over two and change. But given the way things look right now, it's possible he gets another chance. What did what did you take away from your conversation with Lorenzen and what do you think if he's going to get another chance to kind of be a bulk guy next time through? What do you think the areas are that the jays can kind of keep nudging him toward the Lorenzen? He thinks he can still be.

14:36Yeah, it was really interesting, right? I just wanted to catch up with him and he started talking about, you know, I heard some people say that they were pretty excited about some adjustments that he was making. And so I wanted to talk to him about that. And he started saying how he'd been essentially trying to find his natural throw. Where you know, both from not only from an arm slot and arm motion, but also like his whole the whole body mechanics that go into that throwing. And he said that he's kind of using some biomech data from the jays and piecing it together with things that he tried in the past. He found more of a natural path. And you know, Friday night in KC, he was sitting about just to tick under 96, which is his best bellow all year and something that he'd been chasing. And if there is something there, it's that's important. Because like the one thing that the jays can't do as it can't really. I don't know, guess with with guys who, you know, whether it's something like like a John Klein or Josh Steven or

15:38somebody who has less experience, you want someone who you can reasonably know what you're going to expect from. Because the leverage is so high in each game. And because of that, you know, if Lorenzen can find a little bit just enough to be competent. He doesn't have to be amazing, but the jays just need competent innings right now where games don't get away from them. And that's what he essentially, what he gave them yesterday. Obviously, you would have liked a little bit more, but you know, if you're pitching staff, give them up to and you can't win that game, that's not on the pitchers. So if they can do that, if they can get that out of him, that's essential. Because right now, there's out of options, right? They really just got to find a way to bridge to when they can get two or three from Trey Savage. Potentially September 20th, if the schedule doesn't have any hiccups for him. And again, this is also a lot to ask of Trey Savage, and we can talk about that. But it just, this is a situation where the bludgers are in right now where they just have to get

16:41these efforts and take what they can from guys. And again, you think you could maybe do that with the Chad Dallas. You maybe do that with Eliza Strada, but you're also hamstringing your roster construction because you can't move off those guys without passing them through waivers, which they already did once with the Strada. So they're just in a situation where anything they can get from someone like Alaransin who, again, has some maturity, has some natural athleticism, has been around. He knows, he knows the deal. Sometimes you feel better with a guy like that than someone who may be less of a known commodity. Yeah, it's a fascinating puzzle to try to figure out here, and they've got 15 games left, and we know Cesar Young are going to start three of those each. We know, Shers is going to start three probably four of those. That leaves you a lot of question, Marseille. I'll trade you savage by the way, the update from Arden's Well, and yesterday was that he's expected to throw two innings to hitters live today, get the 30 to 35 pitches, and then we'll see from there the bison season obviously ends on the 20th. So next week is the last window for true rehab games instead of the kind of bridge league games that Corbin Burns has been

17:48getting into as he works back or whatever. Let's try the other question that comes up is even if we know that Cesar Young are throwing three and Shers is going to throw Friday and then probably three more, when those bullpen slash Eric Eddy, slash Alaransin, your savage days come is a bit of a question mark, and the Jays could use today to say, look, Dylan Cesar, as a sorry, I know, you've pitched a lot. Here's an extra day of rest. Stay on turn in the rotation. They could also say, we need you pitching against Baltimore, move those guys up a day. So Shers is going to start Friday. We don't know if it's going to be season Soriano Saturday Sunday or Eric Eddy led bullpen and then see Saturday Sunday given Cesar's diminished velocity the last couple of times out. What do you make of how they try to kind of piece that together? It is, it does mean the difference between an extra start from Cesar against Baltimore versus Cincinnati. So if you're worried about them behind you, there is a relevance there on top of setting up a game 162, a wild card game one and

18:49things like that. A lot to consider there when it's just bumping a guy up a day seems simple. Yeah, 100%. And I think it would be a lot simpler if there wasn't that downward trajectory to Cease's Velocene was, you know, it had been down for a bit, got up against Cleveland and dropped again last time out. And I think, you know, without knowing all the information in terms of what he's reporting to the blue jays, what he's feeling, what they are tying the diminished velocity to. I think that's got to be the primary thing. Like, would you would you rather take say a diminished Cease against Baltimore? Would you rather take a better rested one lined up differently for the rest of the games? And so that's a big part of the equation. And another part of the equation was how efficient both Cease and Soriano are in their starts and Cease less efficient and Soriano last time out. And, you know, you could also get creative. Do you maybe, you know,

19:54flip Soriano and Cease in the rotation in terms of you give Cease the extra day, but maybe not for Soriano and keep him on turn and that way you get at least Soriano in that series against the Orioles. I just think there are a number of different factors and without knowing the specifics of what's leading to this reduction in Cease's velocity. Aside from, you know, the logical where in September and this guy's logged a lot of innings, that's a major question mark. And I think that's going to drive everything because you're obviously not going to put him at risk. And, you know, the one thing and this was interesting chatting with Max Scherzer over the weekend point that he made is like, look, we can't get anybody hurt. We've just got to stay the guys who are in the rotation right now. We've got to be in a situation where we're finding ways to stay on the field. And so, you know, is there is a risk in pushing too far, even as how important each one

20:56of these games are, that's the balance. And so what can what to Cease feel and what to see give you? And I think that ultimately is what's driving the decision. Shy, before we let you go, this is not relevant to the starting equation, but it could be relevant to how you patch together nine innings and 18 innings over a series and things like that. We could still see some bullpen churn at some point. And we know most of the names who are on the 40 man, but the blue jays have also gotten aggressive over the last couple weeks promoting guys from high A to double A to triple A. Hey, you're up against an innings limit or we got a 40 man decision to make on you this off season. Let's see what you look like as a reliever. I know you do your regular farm report. So you're on top of this stuff. Is there a name or are there names that fit that description that are at least on your radar as far as let's say the J's need a bunch of relief arms Friday, who could be here Saturday? Well, you know, I mean the gauge stand for promotion is one that's interesting just because it's there from a stuff perspective. Thing is the command

21:57hasn't been there on a consistent basis yet this season. And it makes it tough. And again, I think whatever it is the blue jays do right now, like the innings are in the hands of the guys they trust most, right? Like you can't there unless the unless you are really, really out of options. This isn't a time to throw darts at the wall. Like last year, it was clear that you savage from a stuff perspective was ahead of pictures on that roster, other pictures on that roster. And obviously he showed that with the way that he performed. But is that clear at this point in terms of what you're going to get and what it's going to look like at the big league level? I'm not, I don't know that the blue jays are necessarily there. You know, it's like one guy would be interesting to dream about, but he's been shut down because his work literally would be their first round pick Carlos co co co co alone. That would have been, you know, hit just from a strictly stuff perspective. You're like, yeah, that's got a chance to play. But he's not going to

23:01be in that mix. And so the blue jays are really in a tough spot. And the other thing too, even like you kind of watch with Ricky teetamin and you can see the stuff. You could see the ability, but you also see some of the rawness with him. It underlines just how unusual and incredible what Trady Savage did a year ago is, right? Like I think it just became normal because you kept seeing it. But just with the, you know, the gift of some hindsight looking back, you're like, that's really, really such outliery stuff what he did last off the last postseason, excuse me. So it's easy to kind of think, okay, well, let's get creative. Let's see what happens. But I think right now a lot of the stuff that jays are doing is more about sort of lining up contingencies and insurances as opposed to someone who's being groomed to come up and and give a healthy team a beast. Yeah, there's a reason everyone makes one of the Los Angeles angels for immediately promoting all their draft picks to the major league level. It's that a, it doesn't work very often and b,

24:04it's a poor way to develop guys long term. The jays don't want to do that unless they're sure with the guy, which is why I often frame this question around the guys specifically, you have to be added to the 40 man this off season like a Nolan Perry, a gauge stand for a Daniel Gera, and not the like, what, what about Johnny King, who didn't end his season in great way. Shy, this is great to catch up man. I look forward to seeing it at the ballpark this weekend. Yeah, see on the weekend. Joy. Shy to VD M.L.B. Insider at Sportsnet. I recommend, I had mentioned it on the show a couple times, but recommend going back to read that piece on Michael Orrensen. Not that he looked amazing yesterday. The velocity was back down where it had been in Colorado. But I do think it's just an interesting read in terms of what are teams trying to do with guys that they pick up off the for lack of a better terms. Grab peep during the season. The jays have done that a bunch of your patch Corbin was available. They tried with Matt Walgren. They tried with Simium Woods Richardson. And those guys are available because the results weren't there. But if you are grabbing them, you obviously think there is a chance the results can be there. So it was interesting to hear Orrensen share that much about what the blue jays were trying.

25:08Like when the jays acquire Jose Soriano in the off season or at the trade deadline, and we can look ahead to the off season and have an idea of what they might try to do. When they sign Dylan C. to a big money contract, we can look at his profile and have an idea of what they might try to do. When you are picking a guy up and dropping him into a game the day he traveled and then asking him to pitch every three or four days after that, the window for what you can do in the amount of time to execute it is so small. So it was cool to hear Orrensen share a bunch of that with shy. So go check that out. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk to our pal Jordan Schusterman of Yahoo Sports. He was also on an Apple TV Altcast. Cesspitt is family barbecue at an Apple TV Altcast for the Tigers Guardians Game on Friday, which was a ton of fun. In the second hour, we'll talk to Jay Casey of the Vancouver Canadians who are one win away from the Northwest League Championship. They'll be back in action Thursday. So on the Friday, rather, so on the off day today, he's going to join us. John Marosi will also join us a little later and had a couple left over text on questions from yesterday. I will try to get to those as well. Jordan Schusterman of Yahoo Sports joins us next as Jays Talk Plus continues

26:11on Sports at 590 The Fan and Sports at 3.6. Welcome back to Jays Talk Plus. Clicked Murphy with you a lot of Jays stuff to talk about. A lot of playoff race stuff to talk about. We have talked about the American League Wild Card Race, almost exclusively as a wild card race. And none of the wild card teams, wild card contenders have been winning a ton. But the AL Central and AL West leaders have also not been winning very much. So we kind of are back in this situation where we have a six team race for three spots, but the

27:14Blue Jays are only eligible for one of them. And the other teams have a couple of paths in. It's weird. It messes with the playoff odds to help us sort it out and sort through Shohei O'Connie hitting the injured list, which was the big news for me yesterday. Our pal Jordan Schusterman of Yahoo Sports and of the Apple TV alt cast last week. Jordan, how are we doing, buddy? I'm doing great. Always good to see you. I'm so glad you're still wearing your berries hat. Makes me very happy. I would you sleep in it now? It's awesome. It's like I put you on to Saskatoon. Yeah, it's like a once a once a week. It makes it in the rotation. Like I'm the hat has to coordinate with the shoes and whatever shirt I'm wearing if I'm going to wear one. So it can only come out if I have a black t-shirt on or a plain white t-shirt or something like that. So, but I do I am mindful of like Jordan's coming on. So I got to get the berries out. Let's get to my hat at the end of the segment, but let's talk about more important things at before we get there. Yeah, I mean the O'Connie situation right now is truly, I wrote about it

28:15yesterday. Yeah, yeah. Sports like I what a what a weird sequence. There's no way that this was the Dodgers plan A, right? There's no way that this is what they wanted to do. I mean, a week ago Brandon Gomes was out there saying that their GM saying we're not even talking about putting them on the IL. Why would you even suggest such a thing? You know, he's we want to keep him in the lineup and that was even well after he had been struggling offensively for a few weeks. Not to mention this weird pitching buildup, but yeah, I mean now he's going to go on the IL. He's only going to be activated for like a few games at the end of the regular season before October. And if anything, it really puts a lot of pressure on them to get that two seed, right? To beat out Atlanta to make sure that they avoid the Wildcard series that would at least give O'Connie another few extra days to kind of get right. So yeah, it's a pretty big deal there and definitely another weird update to his his ever evolving one of a kind career. Yeah, and one note on the one of a kindness

29:22of this all, he has to hit the 15 day IL because while the two way player thing does a 40-year roster luxury of an extra pitcher here and there, it also means he can't go on the 10 day IL. So 15 day IL for a show here, Tony. So he's down at least two weeks here. Obviously this is this is just a huge bummer in general. Jordan, and I know your piece gets into this at Yahoo Sports a little bit. When we look at how this season has gone, the fact that he's had a little bit of injury truck. Now every pitcher has Tommy John surgery. So maybe we're we're not going to quite that anything other than pitching. But the like the the toll of he is pitching and hitting and trying to do both of those things and working out for both of those things and rehabbing pitching while he's hitting like do we have a sense of the cumulative load here of being a two way player is maybe like like the receipt for that is coming a little bit here. We will never actually know, you know, I mean, but that that was part of the kind of impetus to

30:29to writing what I wrote yesterday is just like for all the O'Connor incredible it's all deserved right what he has been doing when he's been on the field is completely has warranted all the hype and more. The also fact is this is his ninth major league season just twice has he started it healthy and finished it healthy as a two way player. And that was in 20 22 22 22. Yeah everybody gets almost surgery. He's had multiple elbow surgeries. The knee that he's now dealing with is also a knee that he had surgery on at the end of the 2019 season. You have to wonder how much is that kind of coming back to to maybe become an issue again, whether he's going to admit it or not. Now we're here about the bicep and the neck. I mean time comes for us all. It's just that this is his identity is to be a two way player and the fact that he was it took weeks and weeks and weeks for him to finally accept okay fine I'm only going to hit. But then we get to the point where it's because that felt like when he finally said that the other night it's like okay

31:30that's significant but now we have some clarity. With this decision to put him on the I.L. It's another level of acceptance of oh not only is is we have running out of time to have and pitch the season. He's hurt. He needs he needs an actual break from all of the baseball to try and get right. So it's and yeah I mean when we when we talk about and contemplate what the end of this best baseball player ever career is going to look like or as that decline look like it was it to me always going to involve more about his physical limitations than his actual skill and I think so far that's exactly what we're seeing because let's remind everybody when he was healthy for the first two months of the season he was as good as ever. He was as best he's in him on the mound that was this year folks he got a 0.7 ERA for you know and that's part of why he wanted to keep pitching because he felt like he was he was one of the best pitchers in the world and probably why the Dodgers wanted to let him keep pitching but at some point your body's telling

32:30you hey dude you got you got to take it easy and his body's telling me he's got to sit down for at least two weeks here and because there are no minor league seasons past this coming Sunday it means he's going to have four games at the end of the Dodgers regular season if he wants to try to get a couple hacks in a in real time you mentioned a pretty big impetus now for the Dodgers to secure that by which they've done a good job insulating themselves on the braves a little bit though the last week or two but you know for a team that doesn't really care that much about the sandings it now feels pretty important for them. The other thing that we found out and it's not official yet but Hoseway DiPalla is going to get the call in the show hey otani spot according to multiple reports coming out around that and he is a very fun prospect he is also not hit above the double A level yet so interesting here he just turned 21 in this season he is posting a 939 OPS at double A but it's double A how surprised at you that the Dodgers were this aggressive

33:31with him now acknowledging he has to be on the 40 man this offseason for rule five purposes anyway but this a big jump and it's going to be a lot on the plate of a 21 year old here. Yeah absolutely I think it is telling and appropriate that what really opened up the possibility for him to come up was that there were DH at bats and not necessarily corner out field at bats I think there's a lot of scouts that still have real questions about his ability to stick over a long period in the outfield he is a good athlete but he has just yet to demonstrate consistent reliable instincts and range in the outfit if you look and say oh well he's stolen all these bases he's like his athleticism is very much present when he is hitting when he's out there roaming in the outfield it's not always the most graceful thing but now that you have DH at bats available he's clearly considered one of their best options and honestly it's kind of this is something that you see more from other teams who are looking for a jolt offensively the

34:33Dodgers have started to find it over the last week but it's not like they don't have guys who have been performing in AAA who are older and improving more at the high levels. James Tibs right there's a couple other guys and yet they go to the Apollo that just speaks to how polished he is as an offensive player and frankly what he's done as a 2021 year old in I mean the whole minor leagues are hitter friendly this year so it's hard to really say this but generally the Texas league not quite as hitter friendly as say if he was in Oklahoma City where all the numbers are completely ludicrous and I think that they might say what they've seen from him in AA has shown them enough that he's he's ready for this jump so and maybe why they've been keeping him in AA to begin with is that maybe they were going to learn even less if he was if he was in the PCL so I'm excited to see the Paula I'm excited to see I mean can he show enough to make the postseason roster even if he is even if Otani's back I think yes when you consider the state of this bench but I'm excited to see how much opportunity he gets because frankly like this is pretty rare

35:39especially in this era of the Dodgers is to see young players either get blocked or stuck on the bench or get traded and in the police case they held on to him they didn't want to trade him over the last few years they've traded away plenty of others and now he's going to get a real chance at a pretty high stakes point in the season so yeah I'm excited to watch him hit that's he's been doing that pretty well for a long time and and we'll see how it goes. Yeah and I mean in terms of the the playoff roster utility I mean this is not what you want him for a long term because he's 21 years old the Dodgers are one of the slowest teams in baseball so even if it's just like I can handle the bat and maybe be used as a pinch runner like they've got like Teosca Hernandez has the fastest sprint speed on that team that's not that is not a fast team. No and again like I don't want to get too excited about his stolen base totals right but when we're talking about relative to the rest of the Dodgers roster yeah I mean forget having he's just a young person.

36:39This team is the oldest position player group in the league by a lot right I mean they sure they just called Alex Freeland back up he's 25 but this is a really old group so just to have some fresh legs do I see him pinch running maybe maybe not but again I'm just looking at a left-handed bat that this team frankly just lacks right now beyond the obvious guys now that's kind of an absurd thing to say when they have had Otani months he's still killing it Freeman who's also old and injury Kyle Tuckerfeller not exactly pulling his weight but presumably he's getting getting playing time nice contract with his massive contract but especially now with Dalton rushing injured again like they're looking for for some left-handed juice and I think that that's really even if it's off the bench that's what the Paul can bring. So two-time reigning defending National League MVP hits the I.L. reigning defending two-time American League MVP comes back off the I.L. in Aaron Judge now the MVP for both of those guys the three P is the doors closed and either I guess showhead three-peated if

37:44you include the I.L. if you separate the I.L. and I know the three P is out for showhead in the I.L. the three P is out for Aaron Judge at this point he picks up a couple of hits yesterday I know you guys talked about this a lot on the the Barba cast I know it's fairly obvious what Aaron Judge does to help a team but how notable is this for you and how you know no rehab assignment complaining about getting pulled after after six hitting that is first game back obviously a big boost here to a team that is probably locked into where they are in the playoff seating but you know better to get him back now the two weeks for now right. Yeah and just the way that judge has kind of been talking about his injury makes me feel like I'm not like he's going to start looking like Aaron Judge here pretty quickly it sounds like this is not something that is going to be physically compromising in any sort of meaningful way and the Yankees we're just playing it extremely safe and interesting contrasts to how the Dodgers have handled showy-oatani in that regard but but yeah I just think that

38:51what's interesting is how he of course he's going to play wherever he wants and whatever about like he's he's going to be the centerpiece no matter what but as I talked about on the podcast like their team has just changed a lot since he last played and now with jazz chism going on the I.L. again is now changing again so we just haven't really seen this is true for a lot of these teams with a lot of the main injuries that they've dealt with on the position player side which has been hard to get a glimpse at what a full-strength lineup really looks like and so what that means how much flexibility that gives Aaron Boone to shuffle some of these pieces around in the outfield and DH and first base and so on is interesting but but yeah I mean it's a huge deal and in an American league that is dying for someone to kind of step forward and be like yes we are the favorite Aaron Judge alone could just be the difference in turning the Yankees even if they don't catch the raise I do believe that if he heats up over the next few weeks and gets stocked over healthy and the Yankees pitching stays intact I think we're going to go into the postseason being like yeah that's the team that's the best team in the American league or at least the team with the highest ceiling

39:52can they survive the wildcard round maybe they can't chase down the race we'll see so that's the opportunity for them and Aaron Judge alone does basically give them that kind of a ceiling but we needed to see him actually get back before we could say that do you think judges feelings are hurt by his return being overshadowed by the impending return of Anthony Volpi today yes I think that well honestly I mean listen they're going to ask Aaron Judge about it too right yeah so I don't know if he is looking forward to answering questions about not himself but potentially and you know he can give the vote of confidence to Volpi and yeah I mean the Volpi is just the strangest right and they're asking Longbar oh is it going to be awkward like I don't know all of these things are just so New York specific there's versions of these happening all the time and a lot of other teams but the Volpi sequence has been the Volpi career and how much he did play and how much trust and how much hype he got some deserve some not is interesting but at this point I think that his actual

40:56importance for this team at this point is no longer that big right sure okay can he cover for gestures over a few weeks yeah that will be interesting from the standpoint of does Anthony Volpi have a future on this roster in 2027 and beyond but as far as hit like that's its own question but is that the most important thing going on with the Yankees is they try and finally win a world series again it no clearly not like like he was red hot a triple A okay 10 games with the 1500 OPS more note more notable than him being hot at the plate is they started playing him a third base and second base because short stops not his anymore that's the more interesting long term thing so that is the top of that that is the we'll say the a side of the American League bracket where whatever they land Tampa Bay New York and Boston are going to be in one side and the other ALCS team is going to come from a mess of we don't know because the white socks are now only two games up on the guardians and the Astros are only two games up on the Rangers and the guardians are only a game up on the blue jays and they're only a game and a half up on the Rangers and three up on the Orioles and we now have this thing where six teams are fighting for three spots but the JZN

42:02Orioles can only grab one of them it's a bit of a mess how you feeling about I know it's at least nice that since we had you on last time this has gone from nine teams to six teams we got that going for us at least but no no more level of clarity at the top here as far as those three playoff positions are concerned yeah I do think we've made some progress like you mentioned I tweeted about that yesterday it's we've can kind of start to shuffle the the Orioles and Mariners and Tigers and twins to the side but but maybe not there's there's just enough time for one of those teams to at least put a put a scare into and to maybe a couple of these others right we still have these these six games left between Toronto and Baltimore which is which is pretty interesting so yeah I you're just it's gonna it feels like we're just heading towards like a game of musical chairs where I don't think anyone is going to show up and again I would love to be proven wrong because that would make you know going into the postseason feel a little bit more clear but the music's going to

43:04stop and one of those teams is going to happen to be in third place now you know that's the hard spot now many wins that's going to take is there still time for a push for Cleveland in the division yes there is and listen a week from now I'm very curious we're gonna yeah next week we're gonna have Monday to Wednesday next week Cleveland Whitesock yeah we're we're gonna have the Whitesock's here in Cleveland so I'll obviously be covering those games that is gonna and let's see where it's at what the gap is at before those games start so that'll certainly depend on this weekend but I don't know is there still time for one more twist even if if the playoff odds are telling us that these are the teams we're talking about yes absolutely but but it ain't it ain't pretty and yeah you know even you know there was a that seemed like oh Houston was surging and then they take a step back it's just they're just taking turns you know I know these teams seems to be capable of winning four or five games in a row so we're just going to kind of do this dance over these last few weeks and see who the last one standing is yeah I'm hoping that this isn't the

44:05twist but the J's have six left against the Orioles so the Orioles could probably find their way back into it things break a certain way but not not great do you like look everyone has gaps in their schedule if you get no hit by the athletics doing a bullpen day this late in the season when you're in a wild car race like should you should you get two losses in the column for that or what hey I don't know if you watched the Mariners at home against the A's last weekend but right that felt like okay these this is where you got to take care of business but also why when we play the strength of the schedule game at the start of September it sometimes doesn't mean anything yeah you know we can go ahead and pencil in all right well they'll win these games and they'll lose these games and if you do the math oh they'll be in the postseason sorry now that said that said I mean you're talking about not just the A's with the worst DRA in the league the A's missing their five best hitters yeah I mean it's like this is depleted of a major league roster as you're really going to see this time of year and with respect Henry Bolte has certainly made a case for

45:10being one of their five best players but no cards no wills and no rucker no stone like it's it's no langlears sorry you would pretty homers as a catcher so yeah that was that was a pretty pitiful showing but weird things happen in Yolo County and that's what that's what the J's experienced so they're gonna have to they're gonna have to clean it up here with this this series this home series against the Orioles yeah 30 final 30 games nobody at the at the start of this 30 game stretch none of the teams were above 500 and yet the J's have gone four and five against the royals and athletics combined so again evidence that strength of schedule isn't all that meaningful Jordan as we wrap up here I did want to ask you in addition to about the hat what what is the hat by the way I couldn't I couldn't I buy thought maybe blue claws but then I help me out here zero percent chance you would guess this this is the spear fish sask watch a summer league team in South Dakota that featured one Charles McAdoo that is really

46:11really his first breakout happened in college and I talked to Charles about the sass his sask watch experience when Toronto was in town and I said hey Charles I know this is weird but I just gotta let you know I just bought a sask watch hat before I came here it is a great hat yeah it's a awesome logo great color on you yeah this is a yeah the sorry I got distracted because I just had the image of the pass watch roaming in the outfield because the J's just played a Kaufman and yes trying to explain to people who didn't know why there is a sask watch mascot only during any basket you know that's was a tough one I don't know how many feels about the sask watch I'll have to ask him yeah what I actually wanted to ask you but in addition to the very cool hat is you guys did do the all cast on Apple TV last week for the Tigers Guardians game I know you did a pregame show and then a couple innings how to go tell us a little bit more about what that looked like and if we can expect more yeah it was a really really fun experience just something new

47:12for us and we have another one coming up so next Friday for Met's Phillies we'll be doing the same thing a half hour pregame show and then the first couple innings you can watch exclusively on yahasports.com on the desktop and then also on the app but yeah just a cool partnership with Apple TV yahua and Apple TV have kind of teamed up for a few things recently and yeah it's you know just just watching ball talking ball and you know something that Jake and I have had experiences in the past doing some kind of live commentating games but it was really cool really cool experience and it's just fun because of like this spontaneity of not knowing what where we're not real broadcasters but it was cool we had the Tigers had a former D3 pitcher throwing and like we're going to be excited about that maybe the actual Apple TV broadcasters weren't as excited about that but we could be sure that we were excited about that and so I'm excited to see how the schedule aligns up and who we end up watching for Met's Phillies next Friday so definitely check that out we're looking forward to doing it again and yeah you don't even need to Apple TV subscription to watch it so

48:14come check us out for the pregame show and then if you do have Apple TV watch the rest of it rest of the game over there. I hope it's as entertaining as last night's Met's game where they they got up eight nothing and then they blew the lead and then they got up 148 and then they almost blew the lead again and 115 14 also the massive one seven of eight now like the Met's getting good and fun after everything this is great it's a good bit that they do. Two things on that series before I before I go first of all post deadline Met's are delight. They came to Cleveland right after the deadline they swept the Guardians I was like this team is about to win a lot of games and that is exactly what has happened so I'm all in on the post deadline Met's does it make their season of success obviously not and how weird of a year has it been for Miami this team has swept nine has completed nine sweeps and been swept nine times this season there's no else in the league that is revolting close to that right so they're what have done a whole lot of sweeping themselves and when it goes bad it goes really bad for the fish so you know if

49:15it's balanced out for them to be around 500 but just a really really weird season for Miami and if they'd been a little more consistent they might be still in the fringes of the Cento Wildcard race but instead they are slipping away like some of those other teams that is a wilds that the so was they've been swept nine times and they have completed nine sweeps on the other side yep there is I think they have the tie they have the third most sweeps or I guess fourth most sweeps in the league doing the sweeping and then they have been swept nine times which is tied for the second most four contacts for less than all the bad teams for context for listeners nine sweeps nine getting swept the blue jays have three sweeps and have been swept twice so that's exactly right and well they've been swept they but I have them as being swept three times oh okay there's the four game against Texas I think Tampa swept them once I might be missing I have the the four game the one one of them is four games and then two of them were three games okay but yeah so that's that's a perfect country because from I track the sweeps a lot the jays

50:18have had have been involved in the fewest sweeps in the league just six the whole season and the the marlins have been involved in the most tie with the rays at 18 now they're the rays of course have been doing most of the sweeping themselves but yeah it's it's weird and it does create a very different fan experience in some ways I think it sums up the blue jays pretty well right because they've been just good enough and just bad enough to avoid both they just not's not quite the consistency there so they have not one more than four games in a row which feels impossible for even bad teams but here we are Jordan that's a lot of great stuff looking forward to the the pregame show again on Friday thanks for taking the time out always fun black thank you sir go say ask watch Jordan Schusterman of Yahoo Sports the Barber cast and I make sure you're checking out their pregame show in a couple of endings on Yahoo Sports or Apple TV for Fridays game a lot of fun stuff there they I mean all their episodes are great but they had a great episode with Ryan Spillberg's last week as well getting into a lot of things but also some of you know why Spillberg's who

51:23who played overseas for a little bit is not surprised by how well the Japanese imports are doing including the rookies in Kazamokomoto and and Minotaka Mara Kami the first year with 330 plus home run Japanese players in Major League Baseball which is a lot of fun obviously Okomoto just hit a couple for the jays he's they got a hope he's seen hop because he's one of the streaky centers and they don't have a lot going in the hot column right now unlike their high A team the Vancouver Canadians who walked it off with a sack fly and the 10th inning at the net last night to go up to nothing in the NWL championship series best of five so they one more win and they take it home let's take a break let's go to that team let's talk to Jake Casey on the other side as jays high plus continues on sports at five 90 the fans sports at 360. team up the biggest games of the night it's the fan pregame with ailish four of our and Justin Cuthbert weekdays at 6 p.m. on sports at sports at 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts

52:23welcome back to jays talk plus as the Toronto blue jays fight for a wildcard spot we can look to their minor leagues for teams that are already in the playoffs and having a little bit of playoff success here for I believe the fourth time in the last six years the Vancouver Canadians find themselves in the Northwest League championship with a chance to win their second title in that window they are up two games to nothing they won last night five to four on a 10th inning walkoff their center field they're jays Casey joins us now Jake how we doing buddy extra amount man you know well do we appreciate you doing it how you feel man those are two pretty dramatic wins to start this series yeah I mean there's I'm showing up there have been the nap before but you know the people come out and the crowds are awesome out there for sure I have used to live in Vancouver so I have been I have been out there that is great I know your dad got

53:25to go he was on the show earlier this week and he was telling us about his trip about there too so good like what like 6200 people it's got to be pretty electric want to walkoff happens right yeah yeah no I mean it was it was it was a dramatic as you can probably make a his 10th inning you know I mean 10th inning round there one out two strikes you know our boy Gabriel Mitchell gets it done but it just really it's really it's been fun playing in front of this people to all season for sure so that's a game to the walkoff sack fly game one you guys are down you're on first base after single and then Austin Smith hits a grand slam another pretty dramatic I know it wasn't a walkoff but game one pretty dramatic too yeah and game one was also very dramatic you know you had Austin Smith grand slam like you said and then they punched back and then we punched you know it was a back and forth game till the end I feel like that was it's been a fun series so far for sure in terms of like drama and you know back and forth and big hits all that stuff so it's been fun how are you feeling out you got hit by pitch last night right you all good yeah I'm good I'm good all good

54:28okay Jake so this series what we'll spin back and talk about the the next couple games in a bit but wanted to talk about your season I know I believe in the opener you broke the handmade bone in your hand there how was that part of the season like obviously it's ended in a on a very successful note for you the last couple months but starting the season that way and kind of having to reset out of like basically I imagine it was like redoing spring training at that point right yeah yeah I mean yeah so first game of the year I broke my handmade bone obviously really unfortunate but it was it was about two months in rehab I don't know obviously like you you go through the whole spring training for like two to three months and to prepare for the season and and obviously that didn't work out for me but you know I kind of used it as a good little reset and just kind of like a fresh spring training a new spring training for me and you know I'm just grateful to have to be have played like almost 70 games this year which is which is good especially after that injury so if I'm remembering with handmade bone stuff a couple guys in Jose Ramirez

55:31right now is one of them have said like the power comes back a little later maybe did you experience that as well what like how did the performance feel once you were able to get back on the field yeah no for sure I mean I wouldn't say like I didn't feel like I mean I definitely started hitting more for more power toward the end of the year this year um but I think the big thing for me was just getting back into that rhythm of playing games because you know you play every single day and you're you're trying to find that rhythm and you're trying to find that you know flow you get into and I feel like I took me a little bit longer than than I expected to be honest but I think once you get the ball rolling with that and obviously you know the power for me came in you know a little bit later but yeah I mean it took definitely took a little bit for sure so as far as that power you close the season so striped the the you had three thousand three hundred with an OPS over a thousand over the last 15 20 games or so um beyond just like hey you got back and rhythm after the injury what do you think kind of clicked for you or what did you figure out as the season one along here yeah I got question I mean it's just a long I mean even though I play and play like half the

56:36season it still felt like a long season it still felt like I had a lot of things to learn throughout the season and I think the big thing for me was just like you know keep it really learning really really keep it simple and especially like you know you get tired you got your body's kind of starting to hurt after a decent amount of games and like the biggest thing is like getting your body in the in this best place to play play every single day and then like mentally really work on keeping it simple especially at the plate you know just trying to hit the fastball and trying to do damage and you know just every single pitch and over the time of over the course of time I feel like I was able to have success because I kept the really simple so as far as that you know simple approach hunting the fastball and then I assume you know you adjust a little bit when there's two strikes is you know that willingness to because you're seeking damage except yeah I'm going to strike out a little bit that's something that the Blue Jays organization is like seems to be pretty cool with as far as you know guys who have a little bit of power was that an adjustment at all for you

57:38or is that just kind of how naturally how you approach it at the play like hey if I'm going to get to my power that's going to mean being down oh two sometimes I'm going to take my walks but I got to live with the strikeout so look was that is that an adjustment for you is that just you know the way you understand yourself at the plate anyway I mean like I think as if you're as a power guy you know myself you know a guy that can hit the ball we know 110 plus guy that can hit the ball out of the ballpark and he gave it that bat at least I feel that way yeah I feel like there's definitely going to be sometimes where you're swinging miss and you get your swing I need the big thing for guys like power guys is like you want to get your swing right you want to get your a swing off especially early so I think I learned like yeah like obviously you know you don't want to you don't want to punch you know you want to put the ball in place as much as you can but there's going to be times you know where you know you're going to get a swing off and you're you're gonna miss it early you're trying to do damage really you're gonna miss you're just swing through a notch speed or you're gonna fall off out you know that's part of the game so I think you know for me just learning that process of

58:41on time best swing as much as I can and you know looking looking to do damage really all the time and that's that's something that definitely like I was able to unlock more power with that for sure when it comes to your a swing are you like look at the metrics kind of guy when you're at like the PDC or whatever you more of a feel and film guy how do you work on your swing I think I'm more of more of a feel and film guy I think I like to I don't know necessarily like to look at like you know the bat speed numbers and all of this stuff I just like to look at when my swing looks like when it's that when it's at its best you know what pitches in my swing and out where are they just trying to keep it really simple and and just trying to keep it repeatable like you know I if I'm I feel always say you're always good as a pitch you swing at so you know if I'm putting my best swing on a ball and it's not like a pitch to hit then you know it doesn't matter so I'm looking to make sure I'm swinging like a pitches and then you know obviously I know my swing looks like when it's going good so just trying to repeat that

59:42so we're talking about your your power here you're also guy who can steal some bases got the you know the double digit homers double digits stolen bases um this is something that you know I know at the need and they're like green like green like green light they've got a lot of that Vancouver maybe a little bit less so but you've been pretty effective I think you're 10 for 12 on the bases what goes into that for you obviously you're a fast guy you play center field a lot of the time sure but I think sometimes people see like you know bigger power hitter and maybe the speed catches them off guard so what what made what has made you an effective base sealer back to Kent state and this season yeah I mean I'm always not pretty sneaky speed like as I you know got older in college and yeah I mean obviously like just knowing that just trying to use that tool best I can I feel like wherever you can bring the table every day for your team to help them win honestly if it's if it's got to be my speed that day then that's what I'm gonna do so I'm just learning learning my speed learning myself

1:00:42it has been has been really big especially with these coaches helped me out a lot and you know working on my steel jumps and my base running because you know once you're on the bases you become a base runner and you really have a chance to affect the game positively when you're running bases and stealing bases is a big part of that too so that's something that I've worked on as I older at Kent state and coming up pro ball to like a lot of these coaches help me a ton to use my speed to the best that I can as far as using that speed in the outfield goes I know you primarily play center you play a little bit of right as well I know the Natsapark where you know the ball doesn't fly out like crazy so that's gonna put a lot on the outfielders there how have you seen your defensive development this year yeah I think I've got I've got I've taken a lot of jumps in a good way defensively you know we've taught we I've worked on a lot of like my my jump my jumps in the outfield like my prep step working on you know just getting the best jumps like can I think it's not because we talk about like it's not necessarily about like your top speed

1:01:43but it's about how fast can you get to the top speed initially so that's that's really what I've worked on a ton is trying to time up my prep step to to get running as fast as I can toward that toward the ballers and the gap over my head and the big thing is like first step so you know in terms of that I've got a lot better at that and then just kind of getting a feel for center field because I played right in college a ton so just kind of get a feel for center in general has been has been big just playing every day stacking on days with that nice that's great um so you mentioned a little earlier you know you you you we're injured a bit you got into you know 65 games plus the the playoff games here um I think it's public now but I I mean you were on the list of names for Arizona fall league that I saw and I know you got a championship to wrap up still first but yeah headed the Arizona fall lead to to kind of make sure you get more games in this year yeah just going to fall like to get more wraps and you know just get better basically nice that's that's great um so take me back to like a year ago like you get drafted by the J's and you know sometimes the J's

1:02:47have their guys especially the the pitchers coming out of college they don't they don't play you get dumped right into uh to A ball with the need and what was this time of year like for you like a year or 14 months ago yeah it was it was really cool you know obviously everyone drinks about getting drafted and then you know I don't know if I expected to play a low A right away but you know that that's how it worked in this organization that's the one for the guys in our draft class and honestly it was really fun like I I didn't know what to expect to be honest I was like all right you know we're just going to play more baseball and you know I learned that you know it's it's definitely another level of college obviously it's it's a higher level in college but you know it's just learning to adapt to that level and and then just like getting to know these guys in my draft class getting to the guys on the needing was was really fun too getting to everyone in the organization so just I was saying it was a pretty surreal experience for a couple months of the organization for sure that's great um okay I I'm sure you you tire of these questions at some point but I'm going to ask you one or two anyway I did have your dad Sean Casey

1:03:51on the show earlier this week and I talked to him a little bit I mean we talked a lot of majorly baseball but also what it was like for him to kind of be a baseball dad and see you at the dad and follow your career while he's covering the majors um what's that like been for you I mean I know it's the only childhood that you experience so there's nothing to compare it to but growing up with a dad and the majors being around pro ball um yeah that experience and how maybe it's prepared you for where you're at now yeah I mean obviously you know super grateful to have someone like my dad in my life just in general as a human being obviously he's the best I mean it was it was cool yeah it was cool growing up you know around baseball like growing up in the clubhouse going to spring training you know with him when I was when I was younger just kind of everything about it was awesome meeting a lot of cool people you know all that stuff and then you know and then just kind of falling in love with the game I feel like at a young age honestly just because I was around it so much but you know obviously like as I get older you know you got to find a you

1:04:54know way to split that relationship with my dad where it's like you know the coach and the father so you know so it's been awesome but he's my hitting coach I always say he's my guy I always go to with hitting and everything about the game honestly like mentality and stuff he's helped me so much I can't explain but you know get it in order you know not even pro ball it's just good to have him as as a resource you know talking to him I talk to him every day about it could be about baseball it could be about you know anything random football anything just it's just good to have him my corner and you know yeah it's I'm definitely definitely blessed you're grateful very very thankful to have his experience to in his wisdom to help me you know as I as I keep playing as I get older for sure that's awesome how you mentioned football there you're a Pittsburgh guy you a Steelers fan big Steelers fan yeah how you feeling about this season I don't know I mean Tom was gone I just I feel like I feel like it would be solid okay I feel like that will be solid I mean there's not

1:05:55I don't think there's a ton to be excited for but obviously as a Steelers fan I'm gonna sit there and watch it's going game and good or bad so I'm ready for whatever happens that's great well if you're going to be able to watch week one you guys got to wrap this series up before game five for yourself for that for that Sunday game so what is today like obviously you guys travel the Eugene tomorrow you're gonna have three chances to win that one game what does today look like and kind of where are you guys at mentality wise as you head out on the road in this series yeah we're headed out of here in a little bit probably like around an hour or so and then got a long bus ride Eugene but I think the mentality today is just to chill and just enjoy the time with the guys you know yeah like honestly just enjoy the time with the guys because where everyone's gonna have the offseason pretty soon and we're all gonna be you know separate from each other pretty soon so I think the big thing today is just to be present and get your rest in the bus and just have a chill day and then you know we were really we were

1:06:57tired my yesterday like really just you know finish the job and really focus like as much as we can tomorrow to you know finish that job and not give a pitch away but I think today is just chill for sure nice that's great um so the one of the interesting things about the northwetley is there are so few teams that you guys have seen Eugene a ton and you've seen so 100 Dryden is the the listed starter for Eugene for for that game you guys have land in Maraud is going what's that aspect like where you might get to see a pitcher a bunch but also these teams see you a lot so I imagine like the adjustments to you come a little quicker in that league then maybe they would in a bigger league yeah yeah no it's honestly like it's pretty cool when even that happens you're facing me like a third fourth the time and you don't know the need to report you're just like all right I know this guy's trying to do to me I've seen him a couple times I think I think it's just like the familiarity of it is definitely helpful I think it could be you could argue that's an advantage for both sides yeah but obviously as a header I think it's an advantage for us that's how we think

1:08:01but yeah I mean you know Dryden just in general like you know a face and a guy a couple times definitely helps with you know your confidence and like you're knowing what he's going to do to you for sure because you know pictures are creatures of habit and you know as a header you're just trying to hit his mistakes you're trying to jump him you know so yeah it's it's pretty cool well hopefully you guys can do that on Friday it's a 635 Pacific start 935 if you're watching I hear and Toronto all those are up on MILB TV to watch Jake looking forward to catching that one and hopefully seeing you guys celebrate a championship sometime this weekend best of luck man thanks for me out thank you man appreciate it Jake Casey of the Vancouver Canadians they are up two games nothing in the Northwest League championship again Friday is game three of that series is it a best three out of five so the the Canadians have three shots in Eugene a team they have played a ton this year because it's a 16 league lineup around us interesting name for the blue jays on the hill in that one if it comes

1:09:06back around to game five on Sunday I believe Dyson Hill is going to get the opener nod again we didn't have a ton of minor league updates yesterday not a lot really going on again to need and done for the season new hamsters wrapping up but they got rained out yesterday of note for the trivial a Buffalo bisons though and probably not of note for the Toronto blue jays just yet but Josh Winkowski is going to start for Buffalo today so I've talked about Winkowski's rehab on the show a couple times before because he's an interesting guy I mean the story is interesting alone he was a 15th round jays picked he was traded away landed up on the red socks pitched for them in kind of a swingman role first as a starter then a swingman for a couple years and then the blue jays last offseason signed him to a two year minor league deal and he is you know I didn't it was hard to peg down what the actual timeline was because he had a vague in 2025 like got reshut down when he was rehabbing and nobody around the red socks seem to know I think we had Chris

1:10:07Ketillo on the show around the time and nobody really seemed to know what was going on with Winkowski so a couple weeks back he started getting into games for Dunedin stretch out as far as three innings and he's going to start for Buffalo today so I believe when you sign a guy to a two year minor league deal you're probably looking at year two as far as utility and his velocity has been down about two and a half miles from where it was pre injury but when a guy has gotten back to AAA from his rehab and is capable of throwing three plus innings right now that is on the radar for a team that is a little light on arms and a little light on length of course they have other guys that could call more imminently chase Lee is on the 40 man now like Chad Dallas if he gets called up he has to stay up because he's been optioned down too many times Chad Dallas can't get called up just yet but he's getting close to his recall day CJ Van Eyck same thing but they also Brandon Chulucci and John Klein on the 40 man there and there is a path to creating 60 day 40 man spots by 60 day IElling either Luis Aureus who had that set back and we don't have a timeline for

1:11:12although a 60 day move for him would end his season or James and Tyon who is visiting the Keith Meister to get a second opinion on the MRI on his elbow and I you know I've joked before that I don't I don't think Keith Meister has ever seen an elbow that doesn't need repair in some to some degree so we'll see how that is but that is potentially another path to a 40 man spot at the major league level the only update other than the loss yesterday was that George Bringer was out of the line up for a second consecutive day despite it being a left handed lead bullpen day and having sat the day before John Schneider saying he's a little bit banged up there has been the shoulder thing I believe he's dealing with a wrist thing as well so he was used as a pinch hitter in that one didn't miss that one by by much when he pinched it by the way but if it's not going to fly out of that ballpark it's not going to fly out anywhere other than maybe course so we'll see if he's back in the lineup tomorrow we'll see a lot tomorrow well obviously have macchars are taking on Chris Bassett in that game at 707 a Roger Center it is the Friday after a road trip it's the Friday after an

1:12:14off day that tends to be a big update day from John Schneider mentioned a little earlier that Treya Savage is expected to throw two innings of live BP and get up to 3035 pitches today chain Bieber was throwing 75 feet flat ground on Monday so he will presumably have progressed or not progress and that'll be news at that point Anthony Santander will get into another rehab game today it's expected for Buffalo and I believe play the outfield for the first time so all that going on Jonathan Klasse went back to his home planet I don't know what happened with his pledge fresh yet is there Patrick Corbin a long shot to return this year so we will probably not get updates on on those guys but the key ones shame Bieber Treya Savage James and Ty on Anthony Santander we'll get a little news on those guys tomorrow we will also get news on who is starting Saturday and Sunday again that's kind of the big question right now because you could go Dylan Seas and Jose Soriano and that is preferable as far as who pitches against what teams and how you set up for game 162 or game one of Wildcard but if Dylan Seas is the

1:13:15diminished velocity the last couple starts and particularly the last one I have them wanting to get him an extra day it could be an air getty led bullpend day on Saturday and then Seas on Sunday we'll see how all that shakes out we are going to go around Major League Baseball after this break we talked a little show Hay and Aaron Judge earlier we'll talk a little bit more show hated the I.L. with John Marosi he also was in Seattle to I mean he didn't bury the Mariners the Mariners that themselves but things not going well there they have basically fallen out of the playoff race we'll talk more playoff races maybe we'll talk a little Paul Moleter as well John Marosi had him on his latest road to Cooper Stam podcast which was a fun lesson hearing Moleter chop it up about playoff memories be nice as the blue jays get back and some of those will see how John Marosi's feeling about the blue jays playoff chances next as J.S. top plus continues on sports at 590 to fan and sports at 3 6

1:14:27to J.S. top plus blue jays not in action tonight which after yesterday's game maybe you're thankful for it kind of wish the Vancouver today is give us today when it's not a J.S. off day there are relevant out of town games going on though I mentioned earlier that yesterday the J.S. got all the help they could ask on the out of town score everyone they're chasing everyone behind them everyone who's leading a division they all lost with the exception of Baltimore but Baltimore beat Cleveland and that's a more important result for the blue jays than the opposite today Houston plays at Philly Texas plays at Seattle Pittsburgh plays at the White Sox so none of those you know like I guess the Texas one's pretty big as far as who's fighting with the blue jays to catch the guardians Houston relevant because they're not that far ahead of the Rangers White Sox well because they're not that far ahead of the guardians so you'd like all those teams to stay close and then this weekend the J.S. host the Orioles which is pretty big Cleveland will visit the Minnesota twins so you need a little help from the twins who have fallen

1:15:27out of the race there we keep including the Mariners in this but they have fallen out of the race pretty dramatically here as well John Merosi was covering that earlier this week let's talk to him now up MLB network and the Road to Cooper Stound podcast John how we doing Blake how are you happy pennant race my friend and yes the pennant race despite yesterday's disappointing loss remains alive and well in Toronto you get to see old friend Chris Bassett back in the ballpark this weekend so no shortage of storylines my friend no shortage at all no shortage of work for you you're calling you're calling college field hockey now too oh so that was a fun story there so my I have three daughters they all play field hockey and I've learned this that when when you're hanging out around the stadium and word gets around that that you're a broadcaster and that your kids play the sport and all of a sudden they realize a few days before a game happens that the the stream on BTN plus doesn't have a broadcaster they say hey Merosi would you could you hop on the broadcast I

1:16:31said yes I will need to lean heavily on my analyst which in this case was it was alumni weekend for Michigan so Claire Taylor who was a great captain for Michigan last year she's from Connecticut she came back for the games so I said listen as long as I'm sitting beside Claire I'm an lean on Claire she's going to be able to tell me everything is going on I'll bring us back from break I'll try to say the names right and call the goals and then I'll leave the all the explaining to Claire so but it's I tell you what Blake for me I love all sport we talked about the world couple a bit earlier on this this summer as well love field hockey I know that the field hockey's got a strong footprint in Canada as well and it was just it was a lot of fun to call it and my daughters do enjoy that dad has learned about the sport they play I really do enjoy that that's awesome glad you got to do that that's a lot of fun all right let's talk major league baseball as much as that is probably more fun for Blue Jays fans right now than yesterday's game there is a wild card race here so John I guess like how do we there there are a couple of components this when you're

1:17:33not playing well and you are still close to a playoff spot it is driving some of the fan based insane as you might expect there's also a weird thing that I would love your opinion on as far as the front office has to evaluate what is happening here and obviously it's still better to be in the playoffs than not you have a chance to go like look at the playoff bracket you could get to the ALCS it's not that far out of the realm of possibility but you're also reckoning with the fact that things haven't gone well this year and there are gaps versus what you expected and this is true of the Blue Jays it's true the Mariners which you covered earlier this week how do you in your experience how do front offices work through as disappointing season where it's still possible you end up where you wanted to be. Yeah Blake it's a great question in my experience the the front offices will still have their end of year review they will often bring back proscauting staffs now that part of the game is changed is a little more variable club club based on how robust their staff is but undoubtedly now there's more of an analytical element to that to the evaluation

1:18:36of what happened typically you'll talk with your on field staff even your training staff about all the transpired and what observations you can take away from it because let's be honest at this time of year as you mentioned the Vancouver Canadians going through the playoffs that's certainly something the organization is following closely and supporting and aware of but you're not making trades by and large right now there's not a lot of roster related activity you're getting your your minor league players which again when you look at the big picture of all the players under contract to the blue jays the vast majority of them are not in Toronto right now they're elsewhere they're in the Dominican complex they're in various levels of minor league baseball those seasons are wrapping up you're working on is that I'm going to play a winter ball and what's the instructional league looking like those types of conversations so you're having all of those dialogues right now Blake because you're not calling up the Tigers to ask the trade for terror school because you can't do that right now that's that's gone and so there's a certain seasonality and actually it's this is a little I'll have a little parenthetical for all the

1:19:38listeners today who are saying hey I want to work in baseball and and this is my my ambition well right now is actually when the the player development staffs or front off the staff tends to look at their staffing for the following year September is usually decision time September October so if if you want to get in what is a very long queue to work in professional baseball this is actually the time to do it because this is when teams are setting up their budgets and planning for next year obviously in a regular circumstance because we don't know what the labor situation is but this is the planning time of year so I have every confidence Blake that Mark Shapiro Ross Atkins Andrew Tennis the full group of the front office they're looking at those evaluation points and developing a plan the the blessing of all this and while it has not been the season the jays hoped for these are meaningful games and so you're getting to evaluate Erigetti in a meaningful situation a Josh Smith in a meaningful situation obviously Bateman in a meaningful setting so

1:20:40it used to be that they would sometimes say in years gone by you would never want to base your evaluation on September results for a non-contending team because rosters expanded to a greater extent than what you see now day to day and and so the results will sometimes get skewed especially if you have no pressure the jays have pressure still and so you're looking at someone like Miles for example who was really emerged as a trustworthy player of course got a save earlier this week you've had now a full year to evaluate what Miles can do for you and so even in the midst of a disappointing season I think there have been some really positive developments that give the jays some depth and a strong foundation for 2027 speaking of those positive developments and again not to do too much positive a day after a very bad game but the blue jays all yeah it's a long time between games when you lose a bad three o'clock game and you got to wait an extra day for the next seven o'clock game Brett Bateman had the only extra base hit in that game for the blue jays he's hitting 327 here with a 783 OPS since getting called up shortly after being acquired at the deadline

1:21:45I know he is a guy who has caught your attention what have you seen from Brett Bateman early on just consistently good at bats and and to your point there is there's a little bit of power there a little bit of gap power I know the comparison has been made to Steven Kwan before and I think there's some validity to that the bat to ball is real the angles in the outfield are very good smart base runner really good fundamental player as as I like to mention son of a small college baseball coach in Minnesota a background that I just love that that's just a really it's right to my heart in the Midwest Blake when that's how you learn the game from your dad at a small college so you can tell that he has a lot of those attributes and fundamentals he has exceeded a lot of what I was told to expect from him I know on deadline day as we're getting the trades in and trying to react to them real time I was sent into message around and saying hey what's what's Bateman going to be for Toronto and and the thought was maybe a fourth outfitter up and down guy a lot of questions about if he could be in every day player well he's answered those

1:22:46questions he has shown again it's a limited look but it's enough of a look to say could he be a consistent everyday player beyond this year the answer is yes certainly could and and he's a meaningful part of of the plans for 2027 and beyond and that's where even in the midst of a selling deadline Bateman is a meaningful contributor potentially for next year Josh Smith undoubtedly is Jose Soriano of course Erigetti the result of them mixed so I think we're still waiting to see exactly what he is going to become and and who he is I think this weekend is going to tell you a lot to where he had missed some time I get it but now is when the jays really need him and it's a huge spot for him to pitch more than likely on Saturday so I think you're still getting some information on on various players and even a player like Valor's well who was not a trade deadline piece but you had enough of an evaluation on him I think he becomes a very interesting person as you look at the offseason because you're wondering is he a backup is he someone that you like

1:23:47more as a bat more than a backup to get some starts whether it's at first base or DH how does that overlap with Okamoto any potential interest of bringing back springer on a cheaper deal for one year there's a lot of variability there with this jays lineup that I think Valor's well as a player that honestly I didn't I didn't think I would say this Blake but I believe I have a stronger handle on what Bateman will be for 2027 then I do what Valor's well will be for 2027 and I think that's fair Valor's well as offense has not been where it was when he first came up over the last couple of months but the defense is you know near the top of the league and that can get you a long way like you can have a career as a backup catcher with good defensive metrics but the kind of things you're working through lineup construction wise require the bat to look like it did I edit the gate there as well. So John none of this is going to matter if a lot of the bats don't look better than they have yesterday but the blue jays sit here a game back of the Cleveland Guardians for a wildcard spot and confusing things here is that the guardians are only two back of the white

1:24:49socks the Rangers are only two back of the Astros the Orioles have fallen out a bit a little bit but they still have six left against the jays to kind of fight their way back in this is a very broad question but as we sit here two and a half weeks out what do you make of that kind of six team for three spot race we've got going on in the American league. I love the chaos like I really do and I'm going to make a bold prediction I've been wrong before but I'm going to make a bold prediction here which is that the the final AL wildcard team will have a winning record will there we go I'm not going to stand for the slander of the American league that I'm hearing about it's so weak no no we're going to get a winning team into the playoffs here I'm an American league guy since I've been a kid so we're going to get a winning team in there but when you look at it there's enough traffic there Blake in terms of teams and then again Cleveland's right around 500 the jays despite their recent struggles against the a's they're right there too on on the verge of it

1:25:52I look at 83 wins if you get to 83 you're probably in the dance and the jays have a reasonable enough schedule that they can get there and they'd have to go 10 and 5 which is pretty robust maybe that's asking a bit much of them to do that but I look at that as being the mark to hit if you get 83 pretty sure you're in 82 reasonably confident especially because you've got that that tiebreaker with Cleveland where if they're tied and again you're just one game back at the moment you're so close right there on the verge of it so I like the jays chance I actually checked right before this conversation Blake baseball reference has the jays that I believe 31% and I like their chances a bit more than that but that feels in the right range that that it's a meaningful chance here it's not a long shot it's less than 50 50 but it's a meaningful chance and and that feels true what has to happen I think the biggest thing and we've talked a lot about offense here to me it's

1:26:54on the mound they they need arrogant has got to deliver a huge performance they need a vintage max tomorrow and then with cease they have to try to find some ways to back him off now that's basically the idea here is maybe to get him one one extra day arrest but you need to find a way to help cease get some more rest here because he did look a little bit fatigued on Monday I realized the Saiyung is out there and and certainly it's worth pursuing he's going to be in the top two more than likely but you have to look at the big picture here and he looked like a tired picture in that series opener to where I think an additional day of rest would do him a lot of good and then I think part of Blake the the pain of yesterday's loss is the bullpen game actually worked very well when you're as a bullpen game given up just two runs you should win that game especially in a ballpark where the ball flies it's the best offensive ballpark in the American league so I think that was probably the the missed opportunity there and yet I look at the totality of things

1:27:57and and I'm sure we'll talk or have already talked and we'll keep talking about Vladis season and trying to make sense of that but this is within their reach if they have a good offensive weekend at home and support what needs to be stable pitching and what's been a pretty good bullpen actually of late I like what C-wall's done for them you can talk your way into believing in this team in a way that's not that's not twisting the reality too much like there's a very credible path for this team to make the playoffs. It just doesn't feel that way after you lose too nothing to the athletics bullpen day but it's this is why we have you on cooler heads to prevail. John one of the teams we had talked about for months and months about being first of all they were in that kind of same spot as the jays of like there were high expectations why didn't things get off the ground and then we were talking about them with the jays as far as team's pushing for the wild card of the L. West the Mariners are borrowing a crazy two and a half weeks here they're done they're out of it and Lazaro Montess is a lot of fun and hit maybe the biggest home round of

1:28:58the baseball season. Wow but I know you were posting about this earlier this week we're kind of at a point where it's time to put a pin in the 2026 Mariners and it's a pretty disappointing season for them. It really is and and I follow the team closely there I live there a long time ago a lot of connections to Seattle so I'm watching that team a lot and and and and certainly watch the jays a lot and what I can tell you is from looking at these two ALCS teams from last year the jays are in a much more stable position as you enter 2027 the Mariners are. I don't know who their manager is going to be I don't know what to to make sense heads or tails of Julio Rodriguez in a similar way that the jays talk about Vlad to be honest with you two guys on super long term contracts were still in their 20s who've had mystifying seasons you could put Cal Rally in the same conversation but I they might end up trading one of their starting pictures that they obviously already moved Castillo at the deadline they might move one more I'm wondering is it is it too late to really maximize the value there they and again there's some

1:30:04parallels there Brennan Donovan has missed almost the entire season concussion is the most recent reason what is his future similar to Santander perhaps with with Toronto and barge or to an extent as well but I just when I look at Toronto I see more positive momentum I see a clear path of what this team is going to be next year Seattle they're some of their more important players are pending free agents Randy Rosarana JP Crawford come to mind they just signed Josh Nailer a year ago that hasn't worked out so it's a team that that the pieces just don't seem to fit right now and they have dramatically underperformed what their roster says they should do the jays have as well but I just I like the way the jays approach the deadline they brought back some more meaningful players that are going to help them for the long term whereas the Mariners went for a shorter term they brought in Taylor Ward it just hasn't worked and I get questions about Cole Demerson even about Cole Young and exactly how where what his role will look like in the future and there's just

1:31:09they have a lot of interesting parts to their roster but it's not a cohesive group the jays are more cohesive and even if they fall short of the playoffs I feel like I have a decent grip on what the jays are going to be the Mariners hard hard to say and I do think there's a lot more conversation about the future of their manager maybe even their front office it's a very confusing time in Seattle it seems like a confused one and a frustrating one and especially coming after last year where it was one of the best seasons in Mariners history and they they achieved some milestones that they hadn't ate in quite some time if ever it's a bit of a bummer as someone who would like to see a good team in the the Pacific Northwest that's above high A obviously we have our Vancouver Canadians that's right there John before we let you go and get on with the rest of your week and weekend here the Road to Cooperstown podcast on MLB Network Radio on Series XM and podcast you had a couple of fun ones recently I don't have too specific a question on Paul Molotor just wondering like

1:32:09like you've done this podcast for a couple years now still pretty cool to just like get to sit down and pick Paul Molotor's brain about all this like big playoff clutch hits and things like that unreal and he was one of the players I watched a lot I referenced earlier growing up in Michigan in the 80s and early 90s American league teams were those that I was watching and so that that combo of Milwaukee in Detroit they had some good races obviously we think about the Jays and Tigers two but one thing I hadn't really crossed my mind until I got to prepare for the interview and this connects exactly to Toronto was of course you'd worn number four in Milwaukee and then I asked him I said what what was it that you know your player of a lot of stature you could have asked for four in Toronto Alfredo Griffin had it at the time did you ever ask him about it and he said no Alfredo had been around for a while I didn't want to didn't want to make that request and the equipment manager came up to me and said hey how about 19 19 of course being Robin Youts number

1:33:09and so his dear friend in Milwaukee obviously was never going to wear 19 there but I thought it was really cool how the the only time he didn't wear four was in Toronto he didn't want to ask for Griffin's number and just it just so happened he was offered his buddies number which I thought was really cool and he's and the friendship he's got with Robin Yout is real they are rock solid buddies and I always love that when when you talk about friendships that transcend it just something about sports it gives you joy to see players that you grew up watching they're still friends now and that's certainly the case for Paul and for Robin he also talks about getting to see the other guys at the Hall of Fame and even learning from some of the pictures and it's just an amazing story the other part to Blake I'll make this point quickly four guys now from Saint Paul Minnesota and the Hall of Fame four which is remarkable and it's it's a you know a decent sized American city but and it's not just like the suburban area four guys from the city itself windfield was the first and of course windfield also blue Jay molleter jack morris also blue Jay and then show my

1:34:14or who my order managed with the twins and also notably went to the same high school as Paul molleter and and Saint Paul it's it's very much a park related town where he talks about hey the park I played at was down the street from where windfield played and windfield was his legend because he could pitch and hit and did it all one of the best athletes ever to come from the state of Minnesota in any sport of course he played multiple sports as well. So I just love those stories Blake it's a privilege to hear them and and Paul molleter blue jays world series champ world series MVP and the other end quote unquote the other guy who homer in game six which we kind of joked about as well and he was on base when Joe Carter to him went over the wall so some really fun stories there in that road to Cooper's time episode with Paul molleter. Yeah it's how like Edwin Homer to set up the bat flip but whatever it's the bat flip. Yeah he also by the way Paul molleter hit 447 over that entire playoff run 11 years after hitting 340 from Milwaukee in a run to the world series as well pretty incredible stuff. It was also fun see I haven't gotten to

1:35:15the bud see leg up episode yet but I've got it bookmarked and cute up I wonder if there's anything you know he's thinking ahead of a potential labor stoppage here. John thanks so much for doing this keep up all the great work and looking forward to that episode as well. Thanks Blake hey enjoy some pen and race postseason fever baseball this weekend and I know the road has not been what you wanted to be but you've got it so embrace it enjoy it mad Max it's going to be a lot of fun. It should be a should be a good one thanks John all the best John Marosi of MLB network and it's the road to Cooper sound podcast on serious XM's MLB network radio or wherever you get your podcasts it will be a fun weekend we know the Friday matchup is going to be Max Scherzer against Chris Bass at 707 at Roger Center we don't know yet what the bleeder's are planning to do Saturday Sunday it'll either be Dylan season then Jose Soriano or a Spencer Erighetti ish day and then Dylan sees with Jose Soriano bumping back to the Detroit series I don't imagine they would just move cease all the way back and give them what would have at that point be three extra days rest.

1:36:16So probably what happens with cease determines what happens with Soriano on the orylside Kyle Bradish will start Saturday Trevor Rogers will start Sunday Trevor Rogers is in one of his good spells right now so you know we've talked about how strength of schedule that depends on when you catch a team and how healthy they are and who you catch in their rotation I think I specifically warned at the start of this month that it could also depend which Trevor Rogers you get because he's been at times like the best pitcher in baseball over the last three years and at times down in triple A because it just hasn't gone well so that'll be a fun series of pitching matchups as well a couple textile and questions before we head out for the day because there is no game to set up and again apologies if I if I didn't get to yours I always try to keep them at least until they're no longer time relevant that is on Twitter had asked yesterday and this is something this is a question that I've been grappling with I kind of asked Arden Swellling about it the other week as well the J's were bad offensive team in 2024 and Guillermo Martinez was seen as the

1:37:17fall guy this year's team is terrible offensively what do you think the offseason narrative will be around David Popkins and the question to use on but the the kind of core of what I have been thinking a lot about and talked a bit about it on this show is that this is a staff and group of hitters and philosophy that worked really really well last year they were among the best batting average teams in the league they still found their way to a lot of slug by the end of the year they were a top five offense in most of the categories that we care about and it is the same group and the same messaging and a lot of the same headers and their bottom five in pretty much every way we can measure things this year so you know I know the hit it part of the job of a hitting coach is you're the guy people yell at when the the team isn't hitting part of the job of the pitching coach is that part of the job of the manager is that but it is not all that straightforward to look at well Guillermo Martinez and Matt Hagg out David Popkins in now it's you know David Popkins year 200 minutes left there are a lot of moving parts where you are as a team always

1:38:23evaluating these things I don't say I don't say this to mean nothing matters and you're not evaluating those people and someone might not be held accountable for what's happened offensively but when it's all the same group in the same philosophies and things like that and it works best in class in 2025 and borderline worse in class in 2026 the answer is not going to be as simple as remove that guy or go get that guy back there is more going on than that which makes it difficult but that's why they make a lot more money than a sports radio host Justin from Kitchener had asked a quick one before we get out of here when it comes to holding runners on is there any correlation to pictures that work quickly in general being better at holding runners on this is a tough one because we can't it's hard to capture pictures working quickly quote unquote because the tempo stats that we have available include more than just how fast like there's there's more going on especially with the pitch clock rules limiting how fast you can come set and get ready to go so time between pitches I would imagine like your ability to effectively vary your time between pitches is

1:39:25an important thing the speed of your actual delivery is important as well that's where some guys with long movements get in trouble so I don't have a great answer for that but I'll dig around for today thank you to Shia Davidi Jordan Schusterman Jake Casey and John Marosi thank you to Amethman Frank Brasca and Andrew Adams behind the glass Blair and Barker will have you four to six we will be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow to break down nothing but get you set up for a very big or you'll see we have a great Thursday