Ready, Set, Bet! | March 7, 2026 | Hour 1

0:00FanDuel is dropping bonus bets into everyone's account for the tournament. All you have to do is opt in to claim your bonus. But don't wait, these bonus bets are only available for a limited time. FanDuel, play your game. 21 plus in present and select states. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Max bonus $500 unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanDuel.com, gambling problem called 1-800-Gampler. A Capella University learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think, with Capella University. Learn more at Capella.edu. As ready to bet here on a Saturday, Matt Brown and Mike Summich here for the next three hours

1:03as we run through everything going on out there in the sports world. We got golf already going on. We got college basketball. We're going to talk horse racing. We're going to talk hockey. We got everything for the next three hours. Mike Summich can't wait to get into it. Yeah, it's going to be a fun show here. We got NFL news as well. The flow class night. We'll talk a little bit about Max Crosby. We've got the quarterback roulette that is going to start up this week. Lot going on in the sports world this weekend. Yes, we will have Aaron Halterman join us a little bit later. And who knows what he's going to talk about. We'll let him talk about whatever he wants to. You know, Mike, I'm sure there'll be some sort of horse talk. You guys talk horses this week, right? We did talk horses this week. Yeah, you can check out at Vison at the track over on YouTube or Vison at the track wherever you find your podcast. Get some previews and some best bets for races that are going down the day. So make sure you check that out as well. I wouldn't give Aaron Halterman free reign though. You might get really into the weeds in a couple of subjects that you don't really want to touch. So let's, let's, let's make sure we hone them in here. The hockey and horses, hopefully some college.

2:03All right, listen, fair enough here. But let's start over in the NBA last night. Mike Sommage as these spurs come back from 25 points down at one point. They were down 20 at the half in this one. They beat the Clippers 116 to 112. This was the back end of a back to back. We know the whole load management stuff that's going on in the NBA. They play Wimba Nyama anyway. He only goes 22 minutes in the game. However, it was a very important 22 minutes. As he has 27 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in those 22 minutes. Quiet Leonard did chip in 39 rebounds for a losing effort there with the Clippers. But you have this spurs team down 20 at half could have packed it in. Mike Sommage instead come back when the thing outright. They are 14 and one since February the first. I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell people that that's the best in the NBA. But it is the best in the NBA since February the first. And I guess the question here is is it seemed like it was a fun team. It seemed like maybe it was a year too early. It seemed like maybe hey in the offseason.

3:06What free agent is going to look and say like, man, I want to hitch my wagon to what's going on down there in San Antonio. But instead we're sitting here on March the seventh. Do we have to consider them actual real contenders at this point? And no longer just a fun story. Oh yeah, 100% you have to consider them real contenders right now. When Benyama has already gone up to another level. He's playing limited minutes, but still exceptional inside of those minutes. Castle is way better than I think anyone thought he would be here. Second season inside the NBA. You've got deer and fox. It's a loaded roster from that perspective. But to me, the real reason why you have to consider them a contender here is first off, they're playing their best basketball right now. We always talk about wanting to peek at the right time. It feels like this first team is peeking at the right time. And secondly, they've been very good against Oklahoma City. This is a team that has a winning record against OKC who is currently your favorite in the market to win the title, expected to win the West. I'm not sure OKC wants to see this San Antonio team in the playoffs. And in the fact that they have the number of the team that is your current favorite,

4:07makes them a legitimate contender. We look here. They are two and a half games back of OKC who did get SGA back in their lineup. But Mike, I mean, again, only two and a half back here of Oklahoma City. They are eight to one to win the title right now. That is third on the odds board for this San Antonio team. And I think you look at this. And I listen, I'm as guilty as anybody else. I looked at this roster. I saw how young Wimbledon Yama was. I know that they still didn't want to play him incredibly heavy minutes. And all of that and I go, they're going to be really good. They're going to be really feisty. And they're going to be a thorn in people's side. But it's probably next year. Right. It's probably next year is when they actually make the leap. And instead, they've been there all year. And again, this was, it wasn't a must win, obviously, by any stretch of the imagination or any of that. But when you're down 20 and a half on the back end of a back to back, it is pretty easy to just pack it in and say, okay, man, let's move on. And they did not do that. And that showed me something from this team. And I think even made me look at it. I love them anyway, but certainly made me look at them a little bit differently.

5:09Yeah, look, they outscored the clipper 70 to 46. In the second half, 70 to 46 to be able to come back and get that victory. It's a spurs team that is efficient on the offensive side. Again, Castle's offensive ability has been to me shocking what he's been able to do here in the second year inside the NBA. But on the defensive side, when Ben Yama just creates havoc. Because you see a lot of these guards who are able to get into the paint, able to hit these floaters, you can't do that over Wembee. It's four blocks, five blocks every single night. But it's also the shots he changes. He forces you to take shots you're not used to taking. And that makes it much more difficult. And you've got good perimeter defenders here on San Antonio as well. They shoot the three ball rather efficiently. It's just a complete team year early because of a couple players being able to step up. And they've got cap space over the summer. They can still add to this team next year. So this is a team that's on the rise and I'm happy about it. Because I didn't want to just talk Oklahoma City for the next four years. It's nice to have another team ascending to be able to kind of say, hey, we're going to go punch for a punch with you every step of the way during your shot at a dynasty.

6:12It won't get home. Wembee and Yama 18 to one now out there in the MVP market. Kade is sitting 10 to one. Yokech is sitting there. Five to one in the SGA's moved out to minus 270 again since he has made his return. Speaking of returns, Jason Tatum returned for the Celtics. 15, 12 and seven for him in a 120 to 100 win over the Mavericks. Also returning in this game, Mike Sommage was Cooper Flag, who went 16, 8 and 6 in this one. Plus 160 now in the rookie of the year market is behind Khan, Kanepal out there. And again, it's if they're going to play him, is there any value? Certainly if you have any Khan exposure, you probably want to at least take a little bit of plus 160 just in case that the voters get a little froggy out there. But Celtics 8 to one now to win the title. It's right there with the spurs that we just mentioned only behind the thunder and the nuggets. A pretty impressive return there for Tatum. Yeah, we'll start with the Cooper Flag when all right. I still don't think there's value on Cooper Flag.

7:13I think it's still Khan's award to be able to win. And the fact that you're seeing so much buzz inside the market around this Charlotte's Hornet team and they're making a run. I expect they're going to be able to make the playoffs currently pretty locked into the play in two and a half back of being able to get up to the six seed. We'll see if they're able to do that as they push forward here. But we always know narrative is part of the story here. And what Khan Knipples been able to do from a narrative perspective in this Charlotte team from a narrative perspective makes it very difficult for me to believe that Cooper Flag going to be able to jump him. Yes, he's back. We'll see how much he plays down the stretch for a Dallas team that probably wants to lose more games they win coming home. So for me, if you have a Knipple ticket and you've got a big number on them and you want to buy back some, I totally understand that. But I'm not opening up a new position here on Cooper Flag as rookie of the year. From a Boston perspective, you left out what I think was the most important stat from Tatum last night. That was 27 minutes. When I thought about Tatum coming back, it was a let's play him into shape style come back here. Start him between the 10, 12, 15 minute range and slowly work him up to be able to play 30 minutes

8:18in a game. The fact that they put him out there for 27 minutes in his first start in 10 months against a team that you didn't need 27 minutes from Jason Tatum in the Dallas Mavericks tells me he's a lot further along than I expected. You can get right now plus 280 on Boston to win the East. I played them a little over plus 300 earlier this week because I have a 40 to one pistons ticket to win the East and I'd want some exposure to Boston with that big number to the pistons because this is your best basketball team if Tatum's able to play 35-40 minutes when we get to playoff time. And the fact that he's playing 27 minutes right off the jump tells me that this isn't like a pipe dream that you're going to get full Tatum back by the playoffs. It feels like it's more than likely you're going to get a 100% Jason Tatum here as we go down the stress. In an Eastern conference that honestly 16 deep that you can honestly say you feel comfortable if they were to win the conference like you're not going to make a huge argument against it so playoffs are going to be super fun this year.

9:20Like you said, I mean, it seemed like OKC was just a foregone conclusion, but now you had a wrinkle into that. The nuggets playing well again. You got this spurs team and then over in the East it's going to be wide open. Playoff time is going to be super, super fun this summer. It's funny because I always bash the NBA for the first round because generally it's just not great. Just inject, inject the Charlotte Hornets against the Celtics or the pistons into my veins as a first round these series because if they end up in the play-in and getting in in that seven or eight seed, that's going to be a lot of fun to watch between whoever the Charlotte Hornets end up taking on there in the first round. Over in college basketball, Miami of Ohio did go ahead and complete the undefeated regular season, Mike Sommatch. It did take overtime for them to get to 31 and 0, but 110 108 win over Ohio. And so there we have it. We do get the perfect season as we head into the madness here in March. And you know, listen, it's kind of a fun story. Are they a real contender? Obviously not. But like, you know, fun story. You go undefeated.

10:21It's cool. That will never be able to be taken away from these kids. I know everyone wants to nitpick and say, they're not really any good. Well, yeah, they're not really any good. But I mean, yeah, we will find that outcome tournament time. They're probably not any good. But it's a good story. I don't know why people want to just, you can hold two thoughts in your head at the same time. It can be like, oh, this is a cool story while also saying they're probably not really any good. I mean, why do we have to stay here and just rip them apart just because they play in a bad conference? We don't have to because you can only be with in front of you. And the my view of how coach came out and talked about how hard it was to schedule this year specifically against power for conferences because no one in the middle tier wanted to play them because they didn't want that loss on their schedule. And it doesn't really behoove them to go into Duke and be 25 point dogs. Like what what's the point of that that puts an L on your schedule? So I kind of I can commiserate with him around that. I will say this. I think they should be in now. They went undefeated in the regular season. I would much rather see them than the 11th best big 10 team than the ninth best big 12 team. Like it just put them in the play in game in 11. If they do lose the conference tournament, give them a shot here because I think you have to reward the fact

11:25that they went undefeated in the regular season. Despite the fact that you know, they may not be one of the best 65, 68 teams teams in the nation. They still deserve a spot in that tournament because of what they did during the regular season. I could not agree more. I mean, this is a if we're going to let this many teams into the tournament, you're going to consider the team that went undefeated a bubble team. Like this is really what we're doing here. Isn't this supposed to be inclusive? This is why we have all of these teams in this tournament. You're going to like consider a team that would undefeated a bubble team. I would much rather see my evil high with an Indiana, right? I mean, like when you compare it like and I get Indiana has these quad one wins and blah, blah, I don't care. I want my evil high over a middleing team from one of the major conferences. You and me, both my friend, we are going over in college basketball right now. We'll give you updates on all the games that are live. And as Mike said, two very big moves over in the NFL. We will discuss those as well as what's going on over there in Florida. We got a big golf tournament. It is just getting started here on piece in these sports betting now.

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13:44bets which expire seven days after receipt. Max bonus $500 unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandool.com gambling problem called 1-800-Gampler. Welcome back to ready set bet with Matt Brown and Mike Sommage on V-Syn. These sports betting network. Pretty set bet here on V-Syn. These sports betting network Matt Brown. Mike Sommage appreciate you guys being with us. Serious channel 158 YouTube TV. Be some watch app. Terrestrial states across this great country of ours. We are going over in college basketball as we said. Very early Houston Oklahoma State. This is 13-7 in favor of Oklahoma State again. Less than five minutes into that one Virginia. Less than five minutes into this game against Virginia Tech 14 to three and 11 to 11 right now. Arkansas and Missouri. Those are all of your ranked teams in action. We will keep you updated on all of those. We also have golf going on over in Florida.

14:49We're sitting here at Bay Hill that Ronald Palmer. Daniel Berger has a five stroke lead over Oxeat Betia. You look at these statistics. Mike Sommage and Daniel Berger gaining 2.23 putting. He's only gaining 0.68 around the green, but you don't really have to gain around the green when you are gaining 2.63 on approach, which means you're not really around the green anyway. You're just on the greens every single time, gaining over a stroke off the tee, which equals up to plus 436 strokes gained T-degree through the first two rounds for Daniel Berger. Just an unbelievable start for him. And really the question just remains for for all of us out there is can he keep this up gaining across the board? We have not seen this from Daniel Berger in a very long time. Guys battled all kinds of injuries was one of the premier players on tour when he was healthy and then really, really been struggling to try to make it back from all of these injuries, but back over in Florida where he's from five up on Oxeat as we head into the weekend. Yeah, it helps when you go out and you pop a 63 in the first round. No one else has shot better than 66 in the tournament. So right

15:55there, three strokes better than anybody on either day is going to help out your chances there. I guess the big question here Berger right now plus 128 if you didn't have a piece of anybody in this tournament with this size of a lead where we're looking at a five stroke lead with 36 holes left. Is that a good enough number to get involved? There's plus 128 too short for you. I mean, I don't know if Oxe can honestly contend here when you look at his stat profile through the first two rounds. And again, he can change things up for sure, but Mike, he is losing nearly two strokes off the tee and he's just making it up by putting the lights out. He's nearly gain four strokes putting. And as we know, the putter can kind of come and go, right? I mean, it's a little bit of a finicky thing. And so I don't know if Oxe is the real contender here in this one. I kind of look at the next group past that because he can't keep spraying it and then just making bomb putts. I mean, that just doesn't that's not a formula for success for sure. And so you do have Ludwig, you've got Seethe Gala, Colin Morecawa, Ricky Fowler, Xander Shafley, Russell Hindley, Victor's having a day

16:57out there right now on the course. So like everybody chasing him, I do think it's someone interesting. I would not hate anybody coming in. If you were not on any sort of position, unfortunately, here I say unfortunately, and you're going to say, here we go again. All three of my guys are in the top 10. So all three of my outright are in the top 10 this week. So I have more Cala, I have Fowler, and I also have Adam Scott. And so that being said, he's been he's been lapped a little bit here early going. So it's T 16 for him now, but it was inside the top 10. So we're we're looking here, Mike at a tournament where I'm not necessarily looking to get involved. But listen, if you want to tell me you want to play any of those guys that I just mentioned that are trailing burger because we have not seen four rounds out of burger this, you know, long time. I'm not going to say the season in several years, you know, I'd be perfectly fine with that. So I'm kind of looking at the board here, trying to get a little golf action. So I have a little bit of a sweat comes Sunday. How about Colin Moore, Cala plus 880, and then take in minus 110 for a top five and essentially

18:02playing one unit on each. So then you get if you finish the top five, you break even if you wins the tournament, yeah, 10 X your money. What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, here's Colin's doing what Colin is doing. And this is the this was the staff profile heading into this tournament, which is why I ended up on him from now right perspective. He's gaining two and a half strokes on approach, but he's this is not an outlier for him. Like this is what Colin does. He is one of the very best approach players, one of the very best iron players. There isn't the entire world. And so I don't expect that to go away. And as long as he's not losing in the other spots, so he's he's even off the tee. He's basically even around the green and gaining a little bit putting then with Colin, it's that's that's going to be a formula for top five for him. You know, I mean, like he just basically can't just miss the easy putts, right? As long as he's as long as he's neutral to the field and not losing with the flat stick, then yeah, I mean, Colin's approach game is so, so, so incredible that he's going to be a top five player. Yeah, we still have quite a while until we get in these these top 10 going off here. A lot of players have started the upper echelon of the tournament around 955 Pacific 12 55 Eastern. So still some time to get into

19:06plays if you want to take a piece of the action here at the honor Palmer. All right, Mike, we got the news. We how long have you and I been saying this on the show? This is I mean, it's not like we were seeing the future or whatever. This was just looked at the organization kind of realized what was going on and seemed very obvious that there was going to be a divorce between Max Crosby and the Raiders. It did become a thing last night. Two first rounders. We get a 2026 and a 2027 from the Ravens 4 Max Crosby and you know, listen, we were saying it all along. You are not going to be a year in year out contender in his window of excellence as it is anyway. So it's just it's a win-win for both people. You send him to a place where he might actually be able to compete and you get back a lot in return for a guy that again is not going to be in his peak when you finally might make it to your window. So I think the Raiders did the right thing. I think the Ravens did the right thing because they need a pass rush badly. And then, you know, for Max Crosby, good on him. Guy was always nothing but smiles and everything out here even playing for a bad Raiders team.

20:11So you kind of look at this top to bottom and you go, I think this is good for everybody involved. Yeah, this is this is a true win-win win-win in my mind. Like both teams, I think get better with this trade. This is a Raiders team that that really needs to go into the full rebuild. You get next year's first rounder and a draft that is projected to be very good. You get this year's first rounder where the Baltimore pick is a little better than it usually is. So I don't mind that fact that you're grabbing those two picks from them. From a Ravens perspective, it addresses a serious need with a top tier NFL player at the edge at a key position for them, something they have not had during these runs. And from Max Crosby's position, you get to compete for a title. And this makes the Baltimore Ravens in my mind pretty heavy favorites inside that division. I wasn't willing to go out and say this is going to be a Baltimore team that gets right back to what it was the previous seasons. But adding Max Crosby who is one of the best available players period, stop full sentence is a huge ad for this Baltimore Ravens defense. And look, they are looking at this from a window perspective. How many more years do we have with Lamar

21:13Jackson being able to play at a top tier? How many more years do we have with this defense and being able to handle this under the cap? Let's go out. Let's try and make a move now where it looks like the chiefs are going to be down again next year where you're not sure about Buffalo what's going to happen there. Let's try and strike while the iron's hot here. We saw the patriots make the Super Bowl last year. Why not us next year? Let's go out and add that defensive piece. Yeah, I mean, I saw a lot of the arguments against this. And it seems like everything that comes out everyone wants to just say it's bad. And we'll talk about one of these here in just a second. But well, he's going to be 29 and you just you just explained it. They need three years out of Max Crosby because you probably only got three good years out of Lamar left. And so it's like that's it. You need three years out of Max Crosby to maximize the three years you have with Lamar. And if it doesn't work out in those three years, you're probably starting over as it is anyway. So I mean, they're not worried about the fact that he's going to be in four years that he's going to be 33 or 34. I don't care. That's that's that's passed their window with the quarterback anyway. Look at the blueprint with the Rams. What they've done since they got Matt Stafford, they basically

22:14haven't picked in the first round. They're just trying to find assets that they believe they can come in and have play immediately. We saw them move a first round or again this year. They still have an additional pick in the first round. But they're basically saying this is our window. Let's go and be as good as we can during this window. This is the same idea from Baltimore here. What you get from Max Crosby is going to help that organization exponentially more over the next two years than what that first those two first round picks will help you and I said the biggest need for the bills was the glaring one at wide receiver. You had to take advantage of your all world quarterbacks peak years. And so they go out and make a trade for DJ more. They give a second round pick for it. Everyone loses their mind about it. And it's like, what do you expect them to do? So if they do nothing, Mike, then everyone criticizes them. And then if you go and do something in a limited pool that was available out there anyway, by the way, the best free agent wide receiver that was available in the pool was Alec Pierce. That is not a game changer. That is not a movement. The everyone's going to be jumping up and down about. And so yeah, you went out and traded. It's the 60th pick. It's not like it's the 34th pick in the dress. It's the 60th pick and people

23:18like going, you can't give up a second round. I'm like, you're two picks away from it being the third round anyway. Like, why are we losing our minds about this? Like you had to do something. You cannot waste Josh Allen's ears. The free agent pool was terrible. So you went and you got a guy that was available. I don't understand why everyone's losing their mind about this. What remember when everyone was upset that they didn't give up a third for Waddle at the deadline? Isn't this it's basically it's like an early third round pick late second round pick. This isn't like it's a premium second round pick. Look, is it desperate? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Do they need to do it? A hundred percent. Yes. You have to go and find a way to make a move like this. Like, do I love DJ Moore? No, I don't. He's probably a one B, a two A, but like it's better what you had. You have Josh Paul. He's the one A plus plus plus plus plus. Compared to what's on that roster though. That's the thing. And again, to your point, like, do you want to go out and do you want to pay a bunch of my to Alec Pierce and then have the 60th overall pick? Or do you want DJ Moore and then have the opportunity to go out and add in the ride receiver

24:19room anyway? To me, this was one of those where like, did they overpay? Yes. Did they need to do it? Absolutely. Right. And that's what it comes down to, right? It's like we just at some point, you just have to look at it and say, what's gotta be done? It's gotta be done. You know, it is. Guys, hoop season heating up. Best betting stretch of the year right around the corner. Everything we do at Beeson Pro now to May the first for 29, 99, just 30 bucks every single thing that we do. And that's going to include that March, many of betting guide. And of course, every single thing from the hosts and guests over at Beeson.com slash picks. Take advantage of this at Beeson.com slash subscribe. Welcome back to ready said bet with Matt Brown and Mike Sommage on Beeson. These sports betting network. Pretty set bet here on Beeson these sports betting network. And Mike Sommage is a little bit of breaking news for everybody out there and unfortunate the way that the betting marks work when it

25:21comes to stuff like this. But Rory McRoy has withdrawn from the Arnold Palmer. He was out on the range warming up and something happened to his back and he has withdrawn with a back injury. So no Rory here to try and close this thing out a very popular pick this week over in the Arnold Palmer. Now if you're playing one and done, he made the cut. So it will he'll get a paycheck, you know, he'll just get last place, you know, money there with with all of that. But yeah, unfortunate news for I don't know, people who had a top five on him. Maybe like this guy right here on the microphone, unfortunate there. But again, it's back injury happened out on the range and he has decided it is not worth continuing. Yeah, not great news there. I mean, obviously a big stretch of the golf season coming up as well. So we'll have to see how serious this back injury is. He was four under heading into today. That would have been T9. So very much in. No, that's what you know that this is, that's what you know, this is legit because like he, he was, he was in this. And it's an elevated event too. So a bigger purse here, 20 million

26:26dollars on the line. So a little, I mean, obviously this is a not a, oh no, I'm not close in contention. I'm just going to sit out the weekend back injury. This is a legitimate something doesn't feel right in my back. I shouldn't play two more rounds. And again, got a gust of coming up. You got some of these courses like this is this is a stretch of the season that you want to be at your best. And that now is going to be a question mark for Roy moving forward. So will if anything else comes with that, I will, I will keep you updated here on that. But yeah, just unfortunately, because again, it's just he withdraws. So you're, you're tickets to loser. Unfortunately, ticket is just going to be a loser. We've been doing these baseball previews. A.L. Central is a super interesting division. Mike, you and I were on air kind of when the Frumberval death stuff went down. I put in a tiger's bet on that division. I still feel pretty good about it. But certainly you start to dig in a little bit further on some of these other teams. Of course, if you are not familiar with who is in the central, we got the royals, the guardians, the twins and the white socks to go along with the tigers there. And that one, I do think that

27:28there is some upside for the royals. I think the guardians could be at least somewhat interesting. I'm not too worried about the twins and the white socks. Well, let's start here with this Detroit Tigers team and seems like they're all in, right? Mike, I mean, like you, you, you've got Tarek Scoobal, you got Frumbervaldez, you've got some, some, some hitters and obviously some guys that long as they can kind of live up to what you're, to their pedigree anyway, and what they're going for, this could be a really interesting team. I mean, you're Riley Greens and you're Spensel Torquins, Torquelsons, you got Glaber Torres in there as well. I mean, these are all guys that, again, at the top of their game can be difference makers. And I look at this. And while I think there's a case to be made for the royals for sure, I still think it is definitely rightfully in favor of the Tigers here. Yeah, look, this was a Tigers team. It was the best team in baseball for a large part of the season last year before a monumental collapse of being caught by the Guardians late in the season. We just talked about the Ravens and the window with going in Max Crosby, how he fits. I

28:29think this Valdez edition is one of those like, Hey, we've got a limited window here. We're not going to be able to afford Tarek Scoobal or Trix Scoobal for his entire career. We're only going to have a limited amount of years with him here. Let's go get Frumbervaldez, Valdez, let's get that number two guy into the rotation. See if our bats can get going and see if we can have a legitimate chance to be able to win a couple playoff series here. And I think it makes sense from a Tigers perspective to say, Look, we are a mid market team. We're not going to spend with the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets, all of these guys. But we have an opportunity right in front of us to be really good for two or three years before we inevitably trade Scoobal away. So let's go and let's take our shot right now and see what we can do. I love the front of this rotation. I think Scoobal and Valdez is a great one too. You've got Flarity sitting there in the three spots. Still some upside with Casey Mays, Verlander, who knows what we're going to get from him when we get down the line here. But when you if you if you are entering a playoff series and you're taking on the Tigers and let's say you're playing you're playing a seven game series. You've got to face

29:31Scoobal twice at least. You've got to face Valdez twice and you've got bats in this line up that can hit to your point like Conspensal Torkelson take another step forward. Riley Green is he going to be very good. You've got Bias in here. You've got Ray Bartores. This is by far the most well-rounded team in this division. They have a high ceiling. They have a high floor. And that's not something you can say for anybody else inside this division. Yeah, I mean, listen, the other thing too is if the Verlander thing doesn't work out, they've got Keter Montero down there who's a pretty high pretty high prospect. The guy that they certainly have a lot of a lot of love for. And so he could be a guy that you slot in fairly early if need be. And you look at this just this lineup top to bottom. I don't know exactly what they're going to do with the lead off spot. But I mean, after that, Labor Torres, Kerry Carpenter, Riley Green, Spencer Torkelson, Windseal Perez, Colt Keith who again is going to need to kind of step up and live up to his pedigree, but a super high ceiling for him as well. Parker Meadows, another guy that kind of has been battling injury.

30:34He destroyed lower level triple A's and things like, you know, lower level minors and then triple A and all of that. And was dealing with injuries over the last couple of seasons and hasn't been able to reach his ceiling. But maybe he could. I mean, this you're talking about a guy that's probably going to back ninth for them. He's got some speed, go along with some power and all that. And then off the bench, Mike, you've got Zach McKinsey, Javier Baez. Now these are not great players by any stretch. But if you had to go to one of these guys, if you're giving guys days off, or if there happens to be some sort of injury, and you got to insert those dudes in there, those are pretty good guys to be able to come off the bench with. Both guys have started in the majors. Both guys have played a ton in the majors. And so I think the depth is even there for for this Tigers team. Yeah, I love the depth in the middle and field feels like that you can take an injury at second, third or short and you're going to be okay from that perspective, both offensively and defensively. That makes a big difference at 162 game season. And like, I'm surprised I'm going to say this, but wouldn't you expect this to be a team that buys at the deadline? Not something we usually say about the Detroit Tigers, but after you make this fall does move, aren't they the most likely buyer inside the A.O. Central now because of what they decided to do

31:38during the off season? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I don't know how, especially if you think you're going to be, I guess the only concern would be is if things aren't going great. And like you said, it does not seem like they're going to be able to get a deal done. A long term deal done with Scoobal is that Scoobal gets moved, right? I mean, that's kind of the only real concern here is that if, if this, if it's not going exactly according to plan, dude, they move Scoobal knowing that he's not going to resign anywhere, that they can't afford him, you know, to resign there anyway and at least get something back for him. Yeah, in my mind, you sign up to a deal you can't afford and then you trade him in two years, right? You get a couple more years with him, understanding that you're not going to be on the hook for the later part of the contract. And with the assumption that you're going to be able to go out and get a ton of value for him, obviously there's risk on. If you do that, but at the same time, you have, like this is, look, this is the Detroit Tigers. They're like, this is the team that we put in the same breath with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

32:39Like this is an opportunity right now for this Detroit Tigers team to be able to pull themselves out of the dull drums of Major League Baseball. You kind of have to do everything you can because you don't know how many more opportunities you're going to get like this. When is the next time Detroit's going to have someone like school? It could be decades. So you got to go out and you got to make the most of it in my mind. And the fact that they signed Valdez in the offseason tells me that they are at least interested in going down that path. And if that is the case, I have a little more confidence than I normally do in the management and the willingness to spend money into Detroit than then we've seen in the past decade. I still think it plus money that they are bad in this division. Like you said, I mean, this, this is arguably, maybe not even arguably, the best one to in the American league with scuba Valdez. I mean, it might be the best one to in all of the American league. And then there is question marks after the glass right now. When healthy Verlander actually, even it is advanced age has been fine. Like, you know, he's, he's been fine. It's just the the health angle for him. Lairty, really good 2024, 2025,

33:40kind of rocky. Can he get back to that 2024 form? And then you and I were talking about Casey Mies and the pedigree and how hyped he was at one point, a top 10 prospect and all the baseball, et cetera, et cetera, had a great first half and then fell off a cliff in the second half, right? And so it's like, and he put a whole season together because if not, then you've got to really figure out what you do with that fifth rotation spot because you can't have Mies do what he did after the break last year. He had nearly a 60 R a after the break last year after a really good first half. And so you're, you're not a championship contender if your fifth guy is a 60 R a guy, right? And so if Mies can put a whole season together, then yeah, I mean, this is, this is a championship pedigree team. If Mies can't do that and they got to start looking at the fifth spot at Verlander's age at 43 catches up to him, they got to start looking for another guy there. Then there is, there is a world that exists where the wheels do come off for this team. Yeah, I mean, if all three are worst case scenario, you're right. The wheels can come off. If all three throw to a four to a four to a two ERA for the full season, they win this division going away. Like that's the thing. You don't need the upside because of

34:43the one, too. You just need don't fall apart side of all three of those guys. And if you get that, then they're going to win a lot of baseball games because the lineup is going to be able to score five, six runs on a lot of those days, especially when you're looking at the rest of the staffs that are inside this division. Because look, I would be willing to say like the guardians, the twins, the white socks, even the royals would probably be happy with the three, four, five that Detroit has heading into the season. And Detroit's got a better one, too. And the, the bullpen, they go out, they get Kenley Jansen. He's going to close for them. Really good arms from a set up perspective. Kyle Finnegan will vest both of those dudes. If whatever for whatever reason, Jansen can't get it done. Again, at his advanced age, he's nearly 40. If he can't get it done, I mean, I think they'd be fine going to one of those two dudes to close their, they've got really, really good stuff and all that. So really hard to poke holes in this team when you have to just start going, well, what if, what if, what if, what if as opposed to this is why I don't like this team. So I do like the Tigers, do like that bet that I've got in my account on them to win

35:44that division. When we come back, right to Christchurch going to join us. Let's talk a little hockey, or at least Michael. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going, blending rugged muscle with precision engineering, all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability with the available I Force Max engine. Tundra puts out impressive power torque and towing performance and the roomy high-tech cabin keeps you connected on the go. Or take a look at Tacoma made for drivers who push past the path. Agile, tough and relentless with available features like crawl control, portable JBL speaker, a power lift gate, so gear goes in fast and the adventure keeps moving. The Tacoma and Tundra are engineered to endure season after season, mile after mile. So drive one home today, visit toyota.com or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more Toyota. Let's go places. Life's busy. Don't let banking slow you down,

36:47whether you're paying bills, setting savings goals, or just splitting the check. Atlantic Union Bank makes managing your money easier. With helpful people and user-friendly tools, we make sure banking with us fits you. Call, visit us online, or drop into an Atlantic Union Bank branch today. Atlantic Union Bank. Anyway, you bank. Welcome back to Ready Set Bet with Matt Brown and Mike Sommage. On V-Syn, please force Betty Network. Ready Set Bet here on V-Syn, sports betting network, Virginia 3725 over Virginia Tech. Mike, we said that it was still early in that Houston, Oklahoma State game. It is not still early. It is now down to three and a half left, 3727 in favor of Oklahoma State at home.

37:50Yeah, starting to get a little interested in maybe taking some Houston. Right now, minus 140 on the money line, you can lay a point and a half minus 110 live line. We talked about regretting not betting Houston last Saturday. We'll see if I regret it again this Saturday. Coming down to the end of the first half, about a minute left. Arkansas, Missouri 3732, Arkansas with a five point lead there over Missouri. Missouri, a popular pick in this one, Mike Sommage. So we'll see how this one plays out. Arkansas has the five point lead. Currently, UConn 11-8, that one's still very, very early in some news coming through from Adam Schefter that the Cowboys placed a second round, 5.76 million Tinder on kicker brand and Aubrey. So he can now sign an offer sheet with another team that the Cowboys would be able to match if they wanted to. So we're about to see what the value of a guy that can kick a 70 yarder is in the NFL. It's pretty high considering how good he is at kickoffs as well. I wouldn't be shocked if someone puts a little offer in there and forces the Cowboys to pay. The best thing at the very least makes the Cowboys have to pay more money, right? I mean,

38:52like just just from a strategic standpoint and be like, okay, if they don't, we'll take him, you know, he kicks 70 yard field goals and if not, they get to pay more money. So yeah, we'll see. Let the games begin there for for for bread and Aubrey. Now joining us here on the show, right to Christchak, a battle. It's over there. She is a NHL handicap or NHL expert and I cannot wait to listen to the talk between you and Mike Sommage because Mike Sommage loves himself some NHL as well. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me on guys. Brandon Aubrey's a fun one. I actually worked with him when I worked in soccer. So him kicking a 70 yarder doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah, just it's crazy. They're going to they're going to test the market on this on this rocket-legged kicker and see what the market will do. Tell us a little bit about Betelitic before we get into the NHL. Yeah, so Betelitic's my background. I used to work in the National Hockey League and a little bit in soccer and I decided that my talents would probably be best serving the public because with sports betting becoming a lot more popular in mainstream, I want to provide educated models

39:56and information to people. So obviously hockey is our strength but we do football, college sports, basketball, baseball. It's a lot of information in terms of modeling but also matchup information, kind of proprietary models on usage, injuries, things like that. So if you want to check out Betelitic, we also have a parlay bot that takes all of the data and builds you parlay and you just have to one click bet it. So if you're really lazy and you just want some easy to do, then that's something that you'd probably be interested in. I like it. Anytime you make parlay's a little bit easier, right? The public seems to love to just absolutely eat that up. Now I want to start out with a Buffalo Sabers team here who got shunned by Colton Perinco with the deadline but still went out and made a move to add a couple of defenseman from Winnipeg here. They're taking on the Predators today. They're currently tied to top the division with the favorite in the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning. What do you make of today's game against this Predators team and the long-term aspects here for the Buffalo Sabers?

40:56Yeah, you can count me in as one of the people that is vehemently cheering for the Sabers. It has been a very long time. That fan base is absolutely tortured and I just absolutely love to see that guys who have stuck it out and not opted to just say, check, please, and leave are now being rewarded and will come the playoffs. They are going to be rewarded with what is arguably going to be the single best playoff atmosphere this year. And that's probably because Montreal is not going to be in the playoffs. And so I look at this and I go, I love Buffalo. They're red hot. They're one of the best teams in the league in terms of their analytics, their shot suppression. They've added depth. So generally, when you add at the deadline, when you've been subtracting for years, that provides a boost to a lot of your players. I'm taking the Buffalo Moneyline today, but Tage Thompson has points in nine straight games and in five of six versus the Nashville Predators. I absolutely love that. It brings the juice down

41:56on both of those to almost even money. And so I look at that and I think Buffalo probably wins tonight with the morale boost and just being the better hockey team. And Tage Thompson is the leader of that team. Before the puck drops there in that one, we do have one they'll be dropping between the Rangers and the Devils, where you will be in attendance. You were kind enough to join us here before you head over to the to the live event. We have a decent little favorite in the Devils there against the Ranger. Any thoughts on that one before you enter the arena? Yeah. So this is always one of those games that the way that the team is playing the form that they're in is pretty much irrelevant because it's a rivalry game and it brings out the absolute best. And if you look at who performs head to head the best, Chris Criter, who used to play for the New York Rangers and they traded him was good for a goal every single time the Rangers played the Devils. And now that's kind of flipped and it's Jack Hughes. Head to head, Jack Hughes has points in 80% of his games against the New York Rangers in his career. He is also shooting the puck

43:02a lot since coming back from the Olympic break. He's playing really confidently. And the Rangers over the last two weeks have given up the most shots to centers in the entire national hockey league. So I look for Jack Hughes to put up one or two points and I look for him in Niko Hishir to have at least three shots each. I think that this game, I'm not really a money line person when it comes to rivalry games just because so much can happen. But when it comes to points, there are guys who step up in rivalry games and Jack Hughes is absolutely one of those players. A little bit later today, we've got Tampa Bay heading into Toronto and a matchup that two of the teams that are expected to do well inside the playoffs once we get to that stage. What do you make of the lightning heading into the Maple Leafs today? Yeah, so the Maple Leafs mercifully thank you because they're very frustrating, sold at the deadline. They didn't do as well as I would have liked. But when you look at the Tampa Bay lightning, they have not been very good over the last week and a half. And yes,

44:03injuries are part of that. But now when you have Victor headman and Braden point and Anthony Sirelli back in the lineup and you are playing a team in Toronto that is completely demoralized, looks lost and hasn't won a game in over a calendar month, this should be an area where the Tampa Bay lightning succeed. However, minus 200 on the money line is far too much juice for me. So I'm going to start looking at head to head matchups here. Nikita Kuturov has an assist in 11 of his last 13 games against the Toronto Maple Leafs and 16 of his last 18 if you include the playoffs. So I absolutely love him to get an assist. His point is just way too juiced. So I look at that but also head to head from a goal perspective. Matthew Nice has been somebody that's been a Florida slash Tampa killer in his career. And he's getting a ton of scoring chances. He's going to play with one of Austin Matthews or John Tavares. We're waiting for morning's to get to kind of come out.

45:03But I really like Matthew Nice. He always finds a way to be at the net front and put the puck in the back of the net here. So I'm looking at a Kuturov assist and Matthew Nice for a goal. Austin Matthews hasn't been getting a ton of scoring chances and he's just been cold. He's in the second longest goal scoring slump of his entire career. But he's shooting the puck. So I like him for five plus shots today and you can get that at plus money. I would not touch that money line though because this is one of those games where Toronto would defy all logic and win as an underdog, even though they have absolutely no business doing so. Now Rachel, I want to ask you one more question here before we have to let you go. And that is around the Ottawa Senators. It's a team that I have started to get more and more bullish on as we've gotten toward the second half. When you dive into their numbers or top five in course, you top three in Fenwick. And if you look at the expected goals against that's really where this team has fallen off. We saw Omar miss a amount of month of time. But when he has been a net, this has been a very good Ottawa team right now outside looking in to make the playoffs. They're plus 130 to make the playoffs

46:0622 to 1 to win the East. Am I crazy to kind of fall in love with the Ottawa Senators at this point? You are not. Travis Green has the Ottawa Senators playing some of the best defensive hockey in the entire National Hockey League in the sense that if you get more than 25 shots in a game, that is a bad night for the Senators. They are usually giving up less than eight scoring chances of game, less than 22 shots. They are very defensively put together. And they acquired Warren Fogel here. And he's kind of a great buy low candidate. But I look at this specifically in the game tonight. Shane Pinto has been absolutely fantastic. He's leading the league in scoring chances over his last 10 games. He has really good numbers against the Kraken in his career, scoring in four of six. So I like him. I like Ottawa to win. And on your 22 to 1 play, this is what I'll say about this set. If Omar plays the way he is and he stays in the lineup, if the SENS get in, they are the one team I would not want to play in the playoffs because a team

47:09who defends the way the SENS do who has Brady Kuchak who can get away with literally anything is exactly the kind of team that can cause ruckus in the playoffs. And the playoffs in the NHL are so unpredictable that at 22 to 1, that has significant value. She is Rachel Christchak. You can find her great work over at Betalytics at Rachel Christchak on the Twitter machine as well appreciate the time and good uh and enjoy the game today. Thank you guys for having me on. Guys, when we come back, we will take a look at the scoreboards over there getting to the half at some of these early games. We'll see what's going on early over at the Honour Palmer. Again, if you were not with us, there will be no Roy McElroy back injury with the draw. Life's busy. Don't let banking slow you down whether you're paying bills,

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