Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: And welcome, everyone to student section MLB. It's been a long time since we've been here. I'm Luke Anderson, joined by Tyler Harrison, Davis, Cornell. Guys, it is very good to be back. We've missed about three full months and more of baseball, so we've got a lot to cover on today's show. We're going to try to get as much in as possible, but we're going to start, I guess one thing I wanted to start with is the Chicago White Sox. I feel like that's a fun talking point to start with for our show today. The White Sox are not just bad, they are historically bad. They are. If they don't win seven games in this month, they will have the worst 162 game record in the history of the sport.
I don't even know how to explain it. Like, there is a difference between being just regular bad and being 33 wins and 111 losses.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: They're 40 games behind fourth place and a negative 302 run differential.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: I mean, these are some of the worst numbers that we've seen. And the Orioles not too long ago finished with a 40 something win season in like 2018 or something like that.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: And now, five years later, they're in the race for the number one seed in the AL.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Drafted well.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: We'll have to see.
Yeah, no, the Orioles, I don't know if the White Sox will be able to turn it around like that. I mean, it's kind of the opposite. We saw the, the White Sox won their division, what, two years ago? Three years ago?
[00:01:43] Speaker A: I think it was three years ago. Cause it was the 2021 year where everyone thought they were gonna beat the Astros. Everyone thought it was gonna be a White Sox Dodgers World Series, that being Astros Braves.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: I mean, the White Sox, the fall off of certain players. I mean, Tim Anderson, where is he? Jose Abraham is DFA'd.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Jose Abraham.
Lu. Bob doesn't want to play on the team. Andrew Ben intendi is getting paid to stand there.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: I know left field off needs to be studied.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: I forgot about.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: There are a lot of guys on the roster, even right now, that have been good, and they just were not good this year. The roster turned around from just guys getting cut. I don't even know if I could name half the roster right now.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: I mean, Garrett Crochet is doing well.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Of course Crochet is doing well. I mean, he was in talks of winning the Cy young early on. He's not as good anymore, but he's still very good. I think more of it is just that Tarek Scuba is having a way better year. But I mean, Garrett crochet, 3.8 era, he's going to hit 200 strikeouts, so. But, I mean, he's the only, like, light there is on that team right now. I mean, Luis Robert is playing pretty well, as always, but also, he was having a down year for a lot of it. And I think he was hurt again.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: He was hurt. He was hurt for, I think, 20 something games. Okay.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah, see, he's only hitting 223 with 14 homers.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Well, they're the leading average leader is like 238.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: I know. I don't think there's a single player.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: On the Mario who has a positive.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Wins above replacement number. I mean, it's hard to be at above replacement level when you've lost 100 caves. I mean, this team is just so, so bad. I'm sorry to any White Sox fans listening to our show right now. I mean, I'm sure you've heard it from about just about everyone before you've heard it from us. But, I mean, they had a deadline that was also subpar. They were supposed to sell off all of their guys for elite talent. They gave away Eric Fetty for nothing. They didn't trade Garrett Crochet, which I'm a fan of, that. They didn't do that.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: I thought the Braves were going to get him.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: They could have gotten so much for him.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: I think they still can in the offseason if they really, like, think that, they are going to be really bad for a long time. I don't think he will have lost much value between the trade deadline and in December if they want to trade him. So I like keeping him, but they have to work out those contract extensions. I don't know if they're going to be able to keep Louise Robert. He doesn't really want to play there. And, I mean, they just, they didn't even have a lot of trade pieces and they just didn't do anything with them.
What do you guys think now?
[00:04:25] Speaker A: I have nothing to say about the White Sox. It's. It's so incredibly bad. We can have a whole show about it. It's just, they have two, they have Lubob who could be a good. He's like a better Jorge Solaire in my eyes, a little bit better. Contact doesn't swing us as much stuff. He's like, he's not as much hobby bias as Jorge Solaire is.
Garrett Crochet, I mean, he's. Yeah, he's got a losing record, but wins and losses don't really matter when you're the White Sox. Losses might matter, but what I wanted to kind of ease into was, we're going to get two Triple Crown winners in the Cy Youngs this year. Two Triple Crown winners. I don't think. I don't know if that has ever happened.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: 2011.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: 2011.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: Verland. Who did it?
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Well, they're. They could have retired then hall of Fame. But no. Tarek Scubal is leading the american league in era, in strikeouts, and in wins. And then the bounce back of Chris sale, it's. It's so incredible. I saw a post. I sent it in the group chat, I think, earlier today, where the worst deal the Red Sox ever made was trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The second worst one was trading Chris Sale to the Braves.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: The Mookie bats won.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: No. No.
I'm so incredibly happy as a Braves fan that Chris Sale is finally doing something. Strider's out. We're getting no success. Our batting averages are all down. Olsen's disappointing me. Everyone is. Everyone's hurt. But I'm getting a Chris Sale Triple crown out of it. So I'll live right as Red Sox.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: For starting to recover from the Mookie bets trade, too. This happens.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Oh, I mean, the Mookie bets trade was also. I mean, all the players I got back in that don't play for them anymore. They dealt Verdugo to the Yankees and.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: They still have Connor Wong from Italy.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Connor Wong is not a bad.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Things are looking up.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: But obviously, he has no Mookie bets. But that does not even need to be said. I think that one thing, in terms of the Cy young race that we were talking about before the show is in terms of the aldous, no doubt it should be scuba, especially if he does secure the Triple Crown. But Emmanuel Classe has having one of the best relief pitcher seasons that we've seen a very long time. I know, Davis, you wanted to talk about this.
[00:06:37] Speaker C: He almost has a lower whip than era at this point.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: He does. He does. As of right now.
[00:06:43] Speaker C: Okay. That's crazy.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Why?
[00:06:44] Speaker C: He's just having a stupid season. Any other season, he'd have finished top and finished first in Cy Young.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: I think Tarek Scuba won't win it unanimously because of class A. Class A is having a better season than Gagne's 2003 point.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Cy Young is just absurd. Over 65 and a third inning he's got. He doesn't even have a crazy k rate. He's a ground ball machine.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: I know he did. Like, that's the thing about it, which is very interesting, is he really doesn't strike guys out. But the thing that surprised me when I always look at his stats is that he's, he's pitched more than one inning per appearance. He's pitched in 65 games, and he's pitched 65 in a third innings. So it's not even like he's getting a shortage of innings. He's getting at least the entire 9th inning, and he still has a .7 era. Leads the league in saves. He has 42. His career high is 44. Obviously, he's going to hit that. He's probably going to hit 50 saves at this point. That all depends on how the Guardians keep going. He has a 06:05 era plus, and I mean, I know era plus isn't adjusted for qualified. Obviously, he's nowhere near qualified. But I mean, that is just ridiculous. I mean, this is even better than Zach Britain's Cy Young vote season 2015.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: I think it was 15 or 16. That was a Zach Britain on the Orioles. What was it, a 52?
[00:08:07] Speaker B: I mean, it was something almost exactly like classe's stats right now, except I feel like Classe has been doing it even better to some extent. It's just the Cy Young. I mean, we could debate this forever, too, but I don't think the Cy Young is a reliever award. But I also. I mean, if it's a historic best season ever reliever season, then I think we can start to have the discussion. But I mean, if there were not as many good starters in the American League, I would like to have the discussion. But if scuba wins the Triple Crown, you can't give it to a relief pitcher. That's my opinion.
I don't know what you guys think.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: I was gonna go a much longer range view on clause. He was the fastest player to 150 saves. He's only 26.
He's only 26. He has 150 saves.
It may be out there. It may be too early. Does Hoffman or Rivera ever get touched because Janssen and Kimbrell are too old? They may. They may. Kimbrels not going to reach 500. Jansen, if he plays next season, will reach 500 career saves. He'll pass Lee Smith. I don't think Kimbrough will because he shuts down after the first two weeks of the season. Does class say, I think closely reaches 500 saves. Does he reach 600? And does Moe's record get touched?
[00:09:30] Speaker C: I don't think that records ever getting touch, but it's possible.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: It's possible.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: 652 by the end of his career. And Class A is at like 160 something.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Is at 153. And he's only actually been a reliever, a full time reliever for four seasons, really? In terms of closer, actually. I mean, in 2021, he only had 24 saves. So really, you gotta, like, he hasn't been a full time closer.
He's only been a full time closer for three seasons, and he has 153 saves. And I think he definitely gets aided. I mean, I said this briefly, but I. Saves are also kind of a team stat as well. You have to be on a team that's winning and winning close games in order to rack up saves. But the Guardians are doing that right now.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: I was gonna say that is the Guardians.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: I was gonna bring that up when we were talking about the White Sox, because the White Sox are terrible, terrible, terrible. But at the end of the year, multiple times over, me and you, Tyler and Luke, who's not here today, but he'll be back next week, would never stop talking about how we thought the AL Central was going to be garbage this year. And I was going to say that we really cannot have been any more wrong with how things are playing right now. I mean, the Guardians are 20 games over, and the Twins and Royals are both in playoff spots, and the Tigers are 500. I mean, this is a historic AL central season. Four historically good, like, surprising performances, and one of the worst seasons ever. Pretty funny.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: I think it evened out because we thought, we thought the entire central was going to be middle. Instead, you have a really dominant guardians team. You have a really good team in the Royals who have a superstar player. The Twins and Tigers are both doing decent. They just so happen to be in the same league as the Royals and the Guardians. And then the White Sox took all of the trashiness of any of the five teams in that division and just took it all for themselves. And now they're hoping to reach 40 wins since they're 48 and a half games behind first place.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: I don't even see them getting the 40 wins. They're so bad.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: They have to win. I mean, they have some beatable opponents in there. They have the. They have the Angels twice, and Oakland and the Angels haven't even won 60 games. That surprised me, too. I know the Angels weren't. We talked about how the Angels weren't going to be good, and that wasn't like a crazy take. We had no one thought the Angels were gonna be good, but I didn't know that they wouldn't have won 60 games by this point type of bad. I looked at that this morning and that surprised me. But I think that. But I was talking about this this morning too with my brother. It's like you can think that, oh, okay, these teams are beatable, but can a 30 win Chicago White Sox team beat even the 60 win Angels? Is hard to say because they are that bad. I saw something on instagram that said even with how good the teams in AL Central are doing, aside from the White Sox, the division of the AL Central has a losing record because of how bad the White Sox are.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: There are four teams over 500 and the White Sox are dragging them all down.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: I know. I mean, it's crazy to think about like just how bad of a season that is, but also how good of a season the other teams are having. So props to them.
Usually how we, we have done the show in the past is we'll kind of hop around divisions. So I guess I can hop around the AL. If we want to talk about more divisions, we can go to the AL west because I had brought up the Angels in Oakland before, two teams that are struggling, although Oakland playing better than last year, which we talked about them a lot last year because that was a bit amidst the peak of them selling and moving and being really bad.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Oakland is better than I expected. They're at 60 wins. They're better than I expected. The Angels are worse than I expected. The reigning World Series champions are playing crappy. The Mariners would be at 100 wins if they had an offense. They have the best pitching staff hands down. I will hear no arguments about it. They have the best pitching staff. But I think I saw that, like, the Mariners pitching staff has 20 or 30 quality starts this season that they lost. That means their pitcher went six or more innings, gave up two or less runs, and they still lost the game. It's almost as bad as the Braves.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: I think the Mariners are an interesting one for sure because they have, I'm pretty sure, at least as of a week ago when I looked, and it's probably still true, the lowest runs against in baseball. That means they are allowing the fewest runs fewer than any other team and they still can't win games. I mean, I know those stats are context dependent as well, but there, there are two games above 500. They've been faltering around 500 for a while now, but a couple months ago they were like ten games above the Astros when the Astros were slumping.
We, I think our last show was after what, like a month of base, maybe 30 games. Yeah, it was. It was.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Oh, no. I thought it was earlier than that. I thought we were here before. No, we were here when Trout. It was like a week after trout.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Yeah, trout got hurt.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: He had, what, ten home runs in the first two weeks? And we were like, man, he's gonna hit. Man, he's gonna hit 60. It's gonna be a bounce back year. And then he tore his meniscus twice.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Right.
But, I mean, the Astros were starting the season really bad. The Rangers, too. So the Mariners were kind of pulling away, and their pitching staff was just lights out. So, I mean, it's fun to watch really good pitching like that, but it's also not fun to watch when they're losing. I mean, as a Mets fan, I had to watch that a lot with the grom. I mean, it sucks to have a starter shove and then your team just lose. So, I mean, my heart goes out to Mariners fans, but also, when you had brought it up, Tyler, the Texas Rangers won the World Series last year, and they're four games below 500. And they, they've been hot recently. They were even worse than four games below 500.
I can't even. I don't know what happened to them. I mean, they're not even that injured. I just. I just don't know. I've never seen. I was looking up this morning that in the past 20 years, in terms of World Series hangovers, the 2014 Boston Red Sox finished with about 75 win season. But other than that, like, there hasn't really been a series a title defense as bad as this one.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: No. Everyone was saying the Rangers have a chance to go back to back or at least make the playoffs.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: They, they have less than a 1% chance to make the playoffs.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Really?
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I was about to look at the wild card standings.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: They are, nah .5% chance. Make it.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah. They're behind the Rays, Red Sox, Mariners and Tigers right now in the AL wild card race, and they're defending their title. I'm looking at the record. It just looks like they can't play away games.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: They just called up Kumar rocker to make his major league debut Thursday, which will be cool.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Really?
[00:16:19] Speaker C: Jesus died.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: I mean, I saw the Rangers. They're seven games above 500 at home. They've lost eleven more games. Like, they're 29 and 40 in a way game. So if they play in their stadium year round, they might make the playoffs. But it looks like if they go anywhere that isn't Arlington, then they're having a struggle.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: I mean, they have the same exact team, and, I mean, Max Scherzer is still hurting and. But, I mean, Corey Seager is still playing phenomenal he's having kind of an under the radar season just because of his team's performance, and I just looked at the matchup for today. I didn't even realize that Nathan Ivaldi is a three five era and he's been dealing. I mean, like, they still have the same pieces that were really good in the playoffs, which is why I liked them so much in the playoffs and, but over 162 games, I guess they just can't get it done.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: No, I think they're not getting a lot of production. Oh, wait. Is adoles Garcia hurt?
[00:17:14] Speaker C: No, he's just been horrible this year.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: He's been a say isn't going to.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: He's barely above the Mendoza line. Oh my God.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: He's out for the season now, too. The Fury loss.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Josh H. Smith Wyatt Langford is doing okay. Liotti Tavares is playing under his expected. Jonah's batting 218. Jankowski is batting barely above the Mendoza line and Evan Carter's below the Mendoza lines. Evan Carter, Evan Carter. Did.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: I know Wyatt Langford hit for the cycle a couple weeks ago?
[00:17:44] Speaker A: I think Jordan Alvarez hit for the cycle.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: We almost had a home run cycle yesterday.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Who was it Paven Smith against Justin Verlander. Good night.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: He had, he had like four homers going into the game and he had a grand slam, a three run homer and a solo shot and had a chance to hit a two run homer and his fourth at bat and he shut.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: I saw the ESPN notification. It was like, Paven Smith has a grand slam, a solo home run and a three run home run. Watch his fourth at bat. I don't think I've ever seen that ESPN notification to watch a specific at bat, except for judges race for 62 in 2022.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Right now, some of those milestone things are definitely interesting to see as like notifications and stuff like that. We got a little bit, before we go on to the break in terms of the AL west, we talked a little bit about the Houston Astros, but I mean, they turned the season around. Like I said, they started pretty poor, but I mean, that team, you just can't get. It's so frustrating because they are still kind of pretty unlikable with even so far removed from the cheating scandal. It's still hard to come around to them, but they just can't go away. They're, they're just always going to be there. They're going to be in the playoffs. We, I mean, we did our predictions for the playoffs like you guys wanted to say, oh, the Astros aren't going to make the play or I think Luke maybe said that either the Astros were going to be like close, borderline or maybe even miss the playoffs, but now there looks like they're going to run away with the division.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, I mean, like I said, I, if I remember correctly, I think I said the Mariners, I think I said the Mariners would win the division and they're only four and a half games behind. But it, it's so frustrating because, I mean, like I said earlier, the Mariners have by far the best pitching staff, at least starting pitching in the country. It is hands down there's no competition. It's just their offense has been, it's, it's like they're, they're intentionally not getting people on base for their starters. It's like the starters lost a bet at the beginning of the season and now the batters are just swinging at everything. They have a whole team of hobby Baezes.
[00:19:59] Speaker C: Yeah, they have a 219 team average, and no team's ever made the playoff of over a 220 team average, 219.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: Team average is rough.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: It's literally worse than the White Sox.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: But I think last year, towards the end of this season, the AL west was really competitive. And I remember every show we would go into, okay, what's going on in the AL west right now? And it's nowhere near that type of competitive. But I mean, it's hard to say because the Rangers are still seven and a half games back, but there are only like less than 30 games left to play or just about, and it's hard to make up seven games in that kind of window. They're going to have to get really hot really quick. But I think it is going to be interesting to watch the race between the Mariners and the Astros moving forward. So that is definitely something that we're going to keep track of in the coming weeks. I think we have like three or four shows probably before the playoffs start, so that'll be interesting to check in on.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: If there are like 20 something games left, then, yeah, four weeks, four weeks before.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: So hopefully, I mean, we can make some predictions maybe later, but we got a lot of catching up left to do on our next segment. We still got to talk about the AL east wanted to leave more time for that because that one's a lot more competitive right now. And we got to talk about the entire National League stuff. With the training deadline, three months of baseball is a lot to cover. So we'll be back with you guys in just a minute.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: WVuafM Tuscaloosa.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to student section MLB I'm your host, Luke Anderson.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Joined by Tyler Harrison, Davis, Cornell.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: We got a decent amount covered in the first segment. In terms of the American League. We still have the American League east to talk about, mainly just the race between the Yankees and the Orioles, and we have a lot in the national league to cover. We could start finishing off the American League first. Avis, you could take this away a little bit. You said you are a Yankees fan.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: So coming down to that second to last series against the Orioles this year, we got a huge three game series in the Bronx against the Orioles right now. We got a half game lead on them.
It's all going to come down to that.
They've really been. Both of those teams have been trying to lose this division in the second half. They've been playing so mediocre. It's very frustrating to watch.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: I mean, my bias is definitely the Orioles. I don't know how to explain it. I just much prefer the Orioles and their awesome farm system than the Yankees. Sorry to you, Davis, and to Luke, who is or isn't listening. I'll tell him the same thing when he gets back next week, that I just don't like the Yankees. Y'all already have the two best hitters in the league. You'll be all right.
I mean, probably would have won the division if you would have called up Jason Dominguez before September 9. I don't know. That's. I mean, I'm not the. I'm not the Yankees fans. Not my thing. But the Orioles, I think. I mean, Corbin Burns, I think John is. John. If John means is still pitching well, he's out.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Their whole rotations out for the year, pretty much.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Other than Burns, I think the Orioles would be running away with it if they had Felix Bautista.
They'd be running away if they had the mountain back with them. But Santander and Gunnar Henderson are gonna carry that team to an AL east division title by one game. One game is my prediction. It's gonna come down to the very last series, I think if it's a three game series, I think you'll have to win two out of three. If it's a four game series, I think you have to win three out of four.
So I don't think, oh, it's a three game series. Is it in the Bronx or then? I.
I don't know. It depends on the starter. Depends on if judge decides to hit a home run before then because he was on pace for 60 something and now he hadn't hit a home run in two weeks and he still leads the American League. That's how head and shoulders above everybody he is. And I'm not talking about height.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I think that. I was going to say before, I think it's funny that I don't know if there's a curse placed on this radio show that there always has to be a Yankees fan in the booth here, but I think that this is going to be fun to watch. I think both teams have decent schedules left. I'm looking at the Orioles right now. They play the Red Sox the next couple days. They have the Tigers twice, the Giants, that series against the Yankees and the Twins, which doesn't sound particularly hard, but it's also nothing super easy. And the Yankees have the Royals right now, the Red Sox, the Mariners, Oakland, and then the Pirates on top of that Orioles series. So I think both schedules definitely see some room for a couple wins here, a couple losses there. It's really going to come down to that last series. I think you're definitely right about that, Davis. I think that I did predict the Yankees to win before the season started. I did think it was going to be close. I didn't think it was going to be this close where they had the same record in September.
This is awesome to watch. I think that both teams are just phenomenal. The Yankees had one of the best rotations for the first couple months. You could even argue pre all star break as a whole. They had the best starting rotation in baseball and I don't even know what happened to them. I mean, Luis heel kind of fell off a cliff. I mean, Marcus Stroman kind of fell off a cliff. I mean, Garrett Cole came back and started pitching. Not the greatest, but he's finally been back to playing better. And the offense just outside of.
Outside of judge and Soto, the offense has just been so lethargic.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: I mean, the fall off of Clay Holmes is spectacular.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: That too, the fall off.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: He was on pace to break Carlos Estevez's 62 saves in a season. When he was with the Angels in 2008, he was on pace to break that.
I think he has.
He started the season like 13 for 13. On Savesdev, he did ERA for the.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: First two months he did.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: It was like his first ten appearances he had a zero era. He has now blown eleven saves and I'm looking at it. Of the starting pitchers, Clark Schmidt has a two three four era, but then everyone else is above a three. I mean, Strowman and Carlos Rodan are both above a four.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: So really hit or miss this year. Either.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: He leads the team and wins, but. And strikeouts.
But then the Yankees have. Obviously they're the opposite of the Mariners. They're not really pitching the best, but they have one of the better offenses in the league. I think the Orioles are going to squeak it out because the Orioles are a good mix. The Orioles have like the third 3rd best offense in the league. Arguably could be put at second or fourth because you have I have Yankees first and then you have Royals Guardians. Orioles can be interchangeable.
I think the Orioles have a much better pitching staff than the Yankees, which will inevitably come back and have them win the division. That's the only thing.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: I don't think they have that much better of a pitching. Their bullpen is historically bad. They don't have a closer. Sir Anthony Dominguez. The guys of Phillies practically gave away for nothing. Now they're closer.
They literally have one starting pitcher, Cordon Burns.
They sent down Trevor Rogers for a little while, one of their huge trade deadline acquisitions.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: I think it's hard to tell.
I don't know exactly who's gonna be back for when, but my big concern when we did our playoff predictions for last year was that the Orioles didn't have a playoff rotation. I was really worried about their rotation in the playoffs and that's why I had them losing to the Rangers last year. But I think this year with Corbin Burns, who is definitely to receive Cy Young votes, I think he could finish runner up in Cy Young this year.
Him. And if means can come back and I don't know about Grayson Rodriguez, it's been a while since he pitched. I swear.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: I think means is done for the year. I don't know who Grayson Rodriguez, but.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: I think that if Grayson Rodriguez can come back, I forget exactly what the timeline is for that. That is a huge two headed monster going into the playoffs.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but you can win two games all you want. What is. So if you have a seven game series and you make it to seven games, what, your two best pitchers both get a start?
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So what are you doing those four games? But also I think they have the offense to like to steal a third game with a shaky start. But it's hard to tell. I think in terms of the Yankees. I swear, every time I look at a box score for the Yankees, it's like Aaron Judge has four RBI, one, Soto gets on base five times and everyone else in the lineup has two hits collective and the Yankees lose. But they still have 80 wins and they're still one of the best teams in baseball. So I mean, we could talk about this just judges season. I mean, you guys brought up how he's been faltering in the past couple weeks, but, I mean, judges having one of the best seasons we've seen in a long time.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: I mean, 50 homers, two whole years.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Since he did it himself. Right.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: The best season that we've seen in two years.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: I was convinced he's going to break his own record. Until two weeks, he was on pace.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: To either tie it or break it. And, I mean, it is so. It's incredible to watch that now. People are saying, like, oh, he's the best hitter we've ever seen. No. Albert Pull, host is our generation's best hitter we've ever seen. We weren't alive. At least my generation wanted to see Barry Bonds. So it's Albert pull host. And judge isn't close right now, but Judge not hitting a home run for two weeks and still leading the AL home run race by twelve to Anthony Sontandair and then to his teammate Soto, is so crazy. So that's why I'm saying it's going to be a close race offensively for the AL east, is because, I mean, Brent Rooker having a standout season with 35 home runs, he's fifth in the Al home run race. I'm looking at it. It goes Yankees, Orioles, Yankees, Orioles. Judge has 51, and then Sontander, Soto, Henderson have 39, 38, 36 it is. Both teams have a two headed monster. It will come down to their third and fourth hitter, and I don't think the Yankees can rely on Stanton.
[00:30:09] Speaker C: Stanton's been good this year. He'd hit 40 home runs if he didn't get hurt.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: He's actually had one of his best seasons as a Yankee in a long time, since 2022.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: First half.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Exactly. Because the thing is, he can't put together a full season recently because he either gets injured or he just kind of, you know. But I think that I wouldn't be surprised at all if these teams play each other in the playoffs, and that would be really fun to watch. But I think for now, it's just gonna be. We're definitely gonna have to spend, at least, especially when Luke comes back, too. We're gonna have to spend, like, five minutes every week talking about Yankees, Orioles, what they've been up to. That's gonna be fun.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Y'all are gonna be on each other's teams, and then me and Luke are gonna be going back and forth because the NLE's, it's literally the last wild card standing is in four weeks. Either I'm gonna come in happy and he's gonna come in pissed or flip flopped and we're just going to not stop because at this rate, we're both going to get eliminated in the first round.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: It's.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: But that's not the point. That's not the point.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: It's true. We have a different thing to bicker about, not winning the division, just making the playoffs.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: I don't know, man. If the Phillies fall off in three and a half weeks, we could squeeze, but. Cause it's only a seven game lead.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: Like, that has been the first half. It's not that big of a lead.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: No. Their home record is 47 and 25. Good.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Liberty bank. I mean, I guess this is the best point we can get to transition to the NLE. Here's me and Tyler's chance to go back and forth here. I'll get started, I guess, with the Mets, who in, I want to say in the beginning of June were terrible. I will admit it myself, the Mets were terrible. They were playing so bad. They had a decent bullpen, but their offense sucked and their starters sucked. Pretty much everything sucked and then grimace throughout the first pitch at Citi Field. And since then, the Mets have. Since June 3, the Mets have the second or, no, they, I think they have the best record in baseball since June 3, which is almost like half the season in terms of just games that they are playing. Unbelievable in the. I think I saw on the broadcast the other day that out of the past 20 starts for any team, Mets starters have the third lowest era.
Yep. I wouldn't doubt that. That probably is actually true.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: No. We literally had a streak of like 23 straight games where our starter didn't allow more than two runs.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: That's insane. But the Mets have been hot as could be. It's, it's so interesting. Lindor, if Ohtani, we'll get to Otani and we'll talk about Otani forever. But Lindor is having one of the best seasons in a long time. He has already almost seven wins above replacement. After batting below 100 for three weeks, he's now batting 270. He's going to, he has 30, 30. I think already he might flirt with 40, 40. Probably not, but we'll see. And I mean, aside from him, the rest of the offense has been not as good. But they've picked it up and they've won. They're now 78 and 65. When even I thought, as a Mets fan, I didn't think, I thought they would win 78 games for the whole season. So I mean, if they lose every game except one in the month of September, from this show on, they'll still beat my preseason expectations. So it's, it's cool to see them fight for a playoff spot. It's frustrating when they just finished a nine game win streak and they're still out of the playoffs. Is frustrating, but the NL wild card is just so competitive right now with the Braves. Tyler. I mean, yeah, it's.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: I don't know. Everyone does it. Everyone can say, oh, so and so is hurt. Listen, I need some sympathy. Strider Acuna, Austin Riley, Ozzy Albiz, who else? Jorge Solaire, who swings at things in the dirt, was also hurt. Kelnick was out a few games. Sean Murphy was hurt. Travis darno was hurt. Give me a break, guys. I like, the only thing I'm happy about is a Chris sale triple crown and Ryzel Iglesias has a one one two era. Like, I don't want to. I hate pulling the injury cardinal because we, I mean, we still have Olsen. He needs to show up and Ozuna's playing out of his mind. He's kind of in the lindor situation where Francisco lindor and Ozuna would be having a race for the MVP if it wasn't for Ohtani being the best player I've seen.
But no, I hate pulling the injury card. I don't want to. We could still be batting better. All things, all things accounted for. But, I mean, I'm looking at it right here. Arcea is a 223, Olsen is a 231. Kelnick is 234.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Matt Olsen's been having a down year for sure.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Yeah, Michael Harris was hurt for. Yeah, he's played 91 games.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Like everybody, I hate pulling the injury card, but we would not be in this position. We would be racing for the NLE's title, our 7th straight one. We would be racing for it if it wasn't for the 35 different injuries we had. So for now, I'll have to settle with, with going back and forth with the freaking Mets, man.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's, it's definitely struggle for sure, but I think that we both have some things to be proud of of our teams. Obviously, preseason, the Braves had higher expectations, but with almost your entire like 26 man roster spending time on the IL, you gotta be happy contending for a playoff spot. And I mean, I hope just for the sake of this show, it would make things more fun. I don't want to root for the Braves actively, but I would hope that both those teams can make the playoffs and the Diamondbacks could start losing, which is definitely a possibility as well. I don't know, Dave is you're on the outside looking in on this one, but I don't know if you have anything that who you think is better right now or.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: I don't know. The Mets have been. The Mets have been really good since Agrimas. I don't know.
I think those top two NL wild card spots are locked up with the NL west teams and the Padres and the Diamondback Padres are my pick to win the World Series right now with that super bullpen. They got a crazy Super bowl. Then with Adam Tanner Scott and Jason Adam at the deadline on top of Suarez already.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: I was going to say at this point I would prefer that the Braves don't get the buy because the last two. Last. The last two seasons we've gotten the buy because we've been one of the better teams. And then here come the freaking Phillies. I hope it happens to them.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: The buy prove to not help.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: I mean it every single time. I hope Phillies fans are distraught. Come a month from now when they get the buy and their team slows down. I hope Zach Wheeler gives up eleven in the first game of the series.
[00:36:37] Speaker C: Five days. Hate the not what you want in baseball.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: No, it's clearly. I've seen it happen.
[00:36:43] Speaker C: It will happen.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Goodness. Reese Hoskins put a bat through the earth off of Spencer Strider and then Castiano. Something bad had to have happened cause Castellanos hit a home run. I think JT Realmuto hit it inside the Parker in 2022. Who else? Bryson Stott showed up. Alec Bohm showed up after saying he hated the team. And then we just got one win at home because Harper can't run the bases, right?
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: I'm so mad. I'm so mad talking about it. I'm done.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: I can speak. I would much rather see the Braves be good than the Phillies. So it's tough for me, too. So I think we're definitely. We can band together and root for the Phillies downfall. We'll have to see how that plays out and that they have at least a playoff spot all but locked up at this point, so we could pray for their downfall together in the playoffs. We're going to go to our final break here. We have a brief segment coming up after that. We'll quickly try to recap the rest of what's going on in the National League west and Central, and just some other notable moments from what we've missed. So we'll see you guys in a couple minutes.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: And welcome back, everybody, to student section MLB. I am Luke Anderson, joined with Tyler.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Harrison.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: And Davis Cornell.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: So we got just about four minutes left to wrap up our show today. We got a lot covered so far, but we got a couple divisions left that we can cover a little bit today and we'll go more in depth next week along with a bunch of individual headlines and stuff that we may have missed in more of a more general first show back. I'm going to start with the NL Central here. I know all of us preseason had a lot of interesting predictions with this division. I know I'm eating my words right now. I thought that brewers were going to be really bad this this year. I still don't like the brewers chances in the playoffs. I still think this is how they've always been in terms of they've just been like a regular season team. But you got to give them credit. There are 20 games above 500 with the best run differential in baseball. Surprisingly.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: Oh wow. I didn't even realize it was the best run differential in baseball. I thought it is.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: That was something that shocked me. I saw that this morning.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: I think I had the Cubs winning the central if they resigned Bellinger, but I think they I didn't expect Emanaga. He was like the rookie of the year vote our first show, right? Yeah, he kind of fell off, but I mean, combined no hitter. He's still pitching, but he's not gonna. He's not gonna win the, I mean, not the Cy young.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: He's not gonna win the rookie of.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: The year over Jackson, Merrill or Paul schemes, which is we'd go over the time. If we try to talk.
Same thing for Shohei. Just everyone listen. Shohei's really good. Just go watch him play baseball. He's really good. That's all I have to say.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Tony might have 50 home runs by our next show. We're gonna talk about him a lot more. And the rookie of the year race is something we have to talk about more next week. But Paul Skienes has been really good on a pirate team that's been really bad. Cubs have been really bad for the most part, but I've picked it up. It might be too little, too late for them. We'll see. Cardinals have been about mediocre, kind of like what we expected, and the Reds have been surprisingly bad. I thought that they can maybe sustain some sort of better baseball like they did in the middle of the season last year, but not quite. Ellie de la Cruz has had a very good season as well. We'll see. It'll be interesting to see who wins the shortstop silver slugger. I talked about Lindor before, but Ellie de la Cruz is at a really good season, too.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Lindor is going to win it because Ellie de la Cruz's strikeout numbers are still. Yeah, his strikeout rate. I told, I said, I remember saying this. If his strikeout rate lowered this season, he would be in contention for a silver slugger and he could go 40, 40. He's got 60 plus stolen bases. But he. It's his sophomore season. I'm not. He's playing good. He's an exciting player to watch. A little bit of development. Being that tall at shortstop. He'll be. He'll be just fine.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: I don't see him being shortstop long term. I see them moving under the outfield like the Pirate chips O'Neill Cruz. Exactly.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: I think that we're going to defend. I think that especially strikeouts are a big one. It's hard to say anything because we just talked about Ohtani, and of course you have to bring him up with everything. I can't even begin to talk about dark horse MVP's because Ohtani is going to win it this year and he's not pitching. But I think next year or in the next five years, especially, maybe even next three years, I would say I wouldn't be surprised if La de la Cruz wins an MVP.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: I could. I could see it.
Yeah. His.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the biggest thing is that he has to start.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: His whole stolen bases are going to go up. He needs to lower his errors.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. They may be able to, but that's if they move him to center field and he starts playing well there. I mean, we saw that with Jazz. Jazz has played a pretty above average center field. I mean, I'm sure O'Neal Cruz is going to play above average defense in the outfield. So if La de la Cruz starts doing that, then we'll see. We got just about a minute. We'll try to talk about the NL West. Dodgers are the Dodgers. I think we all expected them to win more games than this, but also, there are like 20 something games left, so they can easily hit 100 wins. We'll talk about that more next week. Padres have been surprisingly pretty good. That's a team I remember I said, they're either gonna be really, really good or really, really, really bad. So they at least are there 20, almost 20 games over 500. I mean, it's pretty surprising when they dealt one soto, and they kind of looked like they not necessarily selling. They were restructuring for sure. It's interesting. It's very surprising that they're this good. Diamondbacks just made the World Series. They're still 15 games over in a pretty competitive national league, and the Giants are just mediocre and the Rockies are the Rockies.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: It doesn't look like the, the Padres or Diamondbacks are gonna give up their wild card spot. So that in at least it's literally, we're both tied. We're both 78 65 right now, right?
[00:42:41] Speaker B: We talked about Davis brought up the Yankees and the Orioles have a huge series coming up towards the very end of the season. So do the Mets and the Braves. That's going to make or break both teams chances to make the playoffs. That's going to be a fun one to cover when we get to that. That should just about do it for our first show back, guys. It's very good to be back.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: Very, very much agree.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: Missed out on a lot of baseball to talk about. I'm excited to be here next week and maybe go a little more into detail about stuff we may have missed. Trying to paint broad strokes. It's hard to cover about 100 games of baseball that we may have missed, but that'll do it for our show today on student section MLB. Please tune in next week. Like I said, hopefully we'll get to cover some more things in better detail.
Have a better show for you guys next week. Thank you all for tuning in to this week's show. Student section MLB.
