>> Good morning, Joe. Gunner and Dan Yellie here with your Ashman, and he's going to join us a little later on in the hour, talked him about Jesse Marsh, and his been national team, and how different, how similar does it feel from the steps they took under Herdman, but also kind of comparing contrasting Canada basketball. It's actually very interesting. And then they, you know, I don't want to compare Herdman to Nick Nurse one because I'm a little out of my depth and so on. I'm a little out of my depth and soccer, known exactly where he should be there, but also, you know, like, say what you will about Nick Nurse, like this guy's an NBA champion, but it is interesting that you have the two guys who kind of, you know, started with the program and then right as things really seem to be kicking in overdrive. They're both have different laws about say guys behind the bench, but that doesn't work for either of those sports, but you know what I mean. I mean, can a soccer is vastly different because, I mean, John Herdman was there for more than a decade, and he had a massive impact on both the men's and women's programs. And we're just talking about this with our producer, Jeff as a party, who came in here in the break. I mean, I feel like it's natural that you as a coach, you can take a team so far, you shepherd them to the point where you've done everything that you possibly can. Here's the, here's a great saying that I like to often reference better be good. Okay, I was gonna say it on oversell. You know what you know, you know what you, and you don't know what you don't know, like, like, it's the reality. So, unfortunately, somebody's gonna have a different perspective, right? Like, John Herdman, he knows what he knows, he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And he did his best to get them to as far as he could take them. Now, Jesse Marsh comes in and maybe there is a greater depth of knowledge from a tactical standpoint. Maybe he is just as effective as a communicator and culture builder, but there is something different. And that's part of the course. It happens. Canada basketball is different. Here's why. Nick Nurse was never really the coach. Okay. He was only there. He was only there for one tournament gunner. Okay. That was it. And, and, I mean, I even referenced this slide because Ben and I had the good fortune of talking about the Canada USA game that happened last Wednesday in Vegas. You know, not healthy with a 10 30 PM start, but whatever. It was still exciting because, I mean, it was Canada USA. And I mentioned my disdain for Nick Nurse in terms of how he landed that job and why he never really made sense. So I feel like that's a bit different. Sure. But you're seeing the effects of having the right coach in place with the right temperament and the right level of seriousness and commitment to what they're trying to do. That is a credit to Jordi Fernandez and the way that he's helped galvanize that group because clearly it's impactful, like whoever's in that role, whoever's shepherding the team and is, is commanding leadership. They have to be able to set the tone and establish standards. And that's what you're seeing on both sides. It is really interesting what a team how the evolution of a team occurs when you do have that coaching change and what that impact looks like, which we're seeing in now on full display and both. Of those instances. Yeah, we are. Okay. Coaches matter in life. If you're in your car right now, God, you need a, you need a mental coach. You should be listening to me, but also wouldn't be mad. If you're like, let me do one of these meditation apps or something. Do it with your eyes open. You got to pay attention. You know, self-driving cars, not a thing yet, but at least for most of you. This story, again, I talked about this earlier. This is on one hand, the most maddening thing of all time. And also just the most like I didn't know they wrote papers or newspaper headlines that said sky is blue. I didn't, I didn't realize that Toronto traffic has reached the point of a congestion crisis. Yeah, is that that's where the part comes into all this? This is the jarring part though. Data collected from the board. Okay. Somebody collects some data. Yeah, 53% of people who were talked to in this study said they have contemplated moving to escape congestion. You know how fine a point this got put on for me this morning? So again, just spent tons of time in, in Alberta was in a little Edmonton, a little close to Calgary there. And this includes being picked up and dropped off at an airport and driving over an hour and change to wherever I was playing in my tournament. I sat in more traffic this morning than I did in the five days. I was in Alberta this morning. Wow. It was 530 in the morning. There was traffic on the gardener. It was absurd. This is obscene. I am not even like, Hey, you live in Toronto. There's going to be some traffic. I have no time for this normally. This is jarring. When you see people saying I got to get out of dodge because I'm stuck in my dodge. This is jarring and just it cannot, it cannot happen. Much like most things I complain about on this show, nothing will change. Nothing. Here's another number from this. Give it to me. 62% of people are reluctant to travel to work because of the congestion. Well, okay. I mean, what can you do? I don't know. I'm going to call. I'm not doing the math, but whoever the other percentage of people are liars. They for sure have been talking to their boss being like, I don't know. Work from home. Seemed to go pretty well. Pretty good. Pretty good. Maybe we should get into that. Pretty good. All right. That was very cathartic for you. Cathartic, but also I'm sure alarming for a lot of people. They're like, I don't know. These guys are talking about the national team. That was my logical screaming. My logical question was actually going to be, how did it compare to your experience in Alberta? So I'm very glad you alluded to it because yeah, that, and if we, as we know, there are plenty of advertisements that have been circulating in this province for quite some time. But relocate. Don't be wrong. I had a good time out there. Stay here. Cheer for the Leafs. Stay here is my opinion. Terrible traffic. Well, okay. Together. We'll all do it together. All right. That was upsetting. Somebody who has upset none of us is Jesse Marsh. Let's hear from a snippet of his interview with a rash, then we'll talk to a rash on the other side of it. I never thought Cathart was going to be a real building block for this team. There are a lot of vets. You're basically commuting by bus within an hour of venues. There's not a ton of pressure in terms of fan-based following on-site, et cetera. It was at night the conditions weren't going to be hostile. This Copa was the polar opposite, right? The travel, the tight windows, the pitches disaster, the organizing committee can't get out of its own way because they don't know what they're doing. How does that now help these guys kind of open their eyes to, okay, this is what this is going to be about for 26? Look, the challenges were big. I said it publicly, being treated like second-hand citizens, and a lot of Canadian people, when I've seen them in the streets now and whatnot, they say that they love that because they've kind of felt like that. And so I didn't even really know that. I just felt like this is what it's been like since we've been here. And of course, what I've said is winning is the best way to make yourself a first-class citizen and we're on our way. Like look, even in the whole process, we won one game, right? So we have a lot more work to do for the performances to lead up to exactly what we want to be. But look, the most important experience for these players was the level, right? And now modifying the way that we think about the game and what we want to be and now making sure that we know that we belong. And they believe that and they were able to show that, right? So I think now they will take with them a whole different level of confidence and belief in terms of who they are individually as professionals and then what we're building and who we're going to become as a national team. That's still, listen, we're still going to have plenty of struggles on the way and it's important that we do have struggles on the way. But you know, even one of the things I talked to him about is before I came, it was a little bit of a possession-based team, right? And look, there's enough talent in the squad to be a good possession-based team and maybe I told the team. I said, "Look, maybe we're 25, 30, 40th in the world in overall football tactics and technical ability." But if you talk about speed, power, athleticism, size, right, now maybe you can start to put us in the top 10, 15, 20 teams in the world, right? And so just as a strategy, wouldn't we want to try to play to our strengths and wouldn't we want to create a playing style that can really access the best qualities of who you guys are? And how do we do that? And that's, I think, the strategy that we're trying to employ now. And they see it, they like it, they believe in it and they understand why it's the strategy. So just last couple, one of the things you said Saturday night was we didn't win enough. And I know you mean partly on the scoreboard and partly in the standings, but I think you meant a little bit more than just that. What did you mean by that? Well, look, it's, we're ultimately going to be judged by wins and losses, right? That's always the case. Now we had it, we managed the tournament very well. And from the beginning, I said, I showed them video from the very first moment we arrived in Atlanta. I showed them like a five minute video of like, "This is South American football," right? And you can imagine, right? A nice fight. Like fights, fist fights, guys grabbing their face on the ground. Everyone arguing with the referee, tackles, tackles, duels. And you know, here I have this young Canadian team that's like, we like to play soccer, you know? And I was like, we need to grow up fast, all right? Not now, but right now. And then I said, the games need to look like this. We need to be setting the tone in this way. We can still be better than these teams if we are able to execute this and play like this and play to our strengths and stay focused and disciplined and not let the referees bother us. And, you know, I made a very clear vision for what it was going to take to be successful at that moment. And to be fair, the team responded and grew and now showed that even for a young team that's a little naive, that we know what this is going to take, each set of challenges is a little bit different. What was good for that tournament will be different than what will be good for the World Cup in 2026. But if I can help them understand the clues and unlock certain things for them, not just football wise and tactically wise, but mentally and psychologically as to what it really takes to be a good player at the highest level and a good team, then we can start to understand what being a winner. That's ultimately what you're trying to do. We played Uruguay and we were the better team for almost the entire match, right? And we showed it in almost every moment that we had more quality, but they have winners on that team, right? And so when the game needed to be killed and when we needed to just finish out the match and say thank you very much, we'll take the third place, we're still not in a place to understand exactly how to execute that and then we wind up letting the game slip away. In the future, we have to build in exactly how to handle all moments, what it takes, how to be savvy, mature professionals that know what the best games are about. But this experience took us on a very good journey to get there. There's a snippet of a wonderful sit-down, a Rashman Danny had with Jesse Marsh and joining us now is a Rashman Danny. Rash, great work with the sit-down. I was telling the guys, I was catching a flight yesterday and it could not have hit me at a more perfect time. I opened Twitter and the first thing I saw was your tweet, so I got to sit there, watch the whole 17 minutes of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great job with the interview and thanks for joining us today. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I appreciate how forthcoming Jesse Marsh was. It's all business, it's no gimmick. It's not making excuses and trying to find areas of we didn't have enough practice time or anything like that. We have a mission. We're headed that way and it's go time. Yeah. It understands two years comes quick. Yeah, that struck out to me as well. Part of it is, I'm very used to what we cover here on a Toronto Morning Show, but it's like we're very used to hearing hockey coaches speak, baseball managers speak, basketball coaches speak, quite frankly. I think part of it is just the nature of that sport is there is a lot more, I don't know, almost storytelling involved in what you're going about it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the things I wanted. I just didn't talk about tipping caps. You were a bunch of killers when it mattered. Do you know what I mean? No, I know. I know a Rash. Believe me. I don't know if you're... Believe me, I don't know if you're like a big fan of the show or not. I'm guessing no, but that is probably the thing I've screamed about the most this season is every three days, happening here about how great the opposing starting pitcher is, but that's not what we're here to talk to you about. That's not what we're here to talk to you about. That was fun. At every turn, it has just gone exactly how you would expect. But, you know, Rash, you have had a front row seat for a lot of these moments with sports that are not always front of center, and quite frankly, they should be. I mean, you're with Canada, the feeble World Cup. You saw what they were able to do there. Obviously, you were following along for a long part of the journey to qualify for the World Cup and what happened there and in this now. Just what have you made? Maybe a little comparing contrast. Take you back to grade 10 English there of how different this is felt from some of those other ones. And I mean, I'll even throw in Davis Cups that I know you've covered firsthand as well. Well, I think there are some parallels between the basketball and the soccer in that when Jordy Fernandez took over the men's national team last year on the first day of camp, he told the guys, "Look, if we don't have a defensive first mentality, we're doing ourselves a complete disservice." And he got the guys to buy in on the defensive end and where that really showed up is when they played World Power France at the World Cup, they held them to eight third quarter points. He called Dylan Brooks's performance against Luca Donge and the quarter finals against Slovenia a Hall of Fame defensive clinic. And they played defense so hard they got Luca ejected from that game. Canada on the soccer side went from a real possession based team to now fully being on the attack. But Marsha's kind of philosophy is that we have to be aggressive and we have to absolutely create chances for ourselves and then see what we can do with it. Think about the Jonathan David goal in the bronze medal game. It is Kone on the run. It is Kone being aggressive. It is Kone playing with confidence and it's off the rebound where David was able to score but many thought was going to be the bronze medal winning goal before Suarez did Suarez things. So I think what you're seeing are buy in from guys on philosophies on the hoop side and on the soccer side. And where this really connects is when you heard Kelly Olinik last week, two weeks ago, when the Canadian hoops team gathered for training camp for the Olympics, he said, "We got the same coaches. We got the same staff. We got the same players. Guys know the jargon. Guys know the tactics." He's like, "I feel like we have a leg up because we all know what we're doing." When the soccer national team gets together again in September for a couple of matches in USA and Mexico coming up, they have a real base to build on now. And so that to me is, "Yeah, I see some parallels. I see some connections and I see this is why there's something to really build on coming off this, off this Copa America run." I mean, I think there is a lot of excitement and rightfully so. I think what this run has also helped do is sort of mask some of the questions that we had about even the Federation. Like we, we spent months and months after the World Cup and even in the years in between discussing sort of the instability that has seemingly been in place as it pertains to Canada soccer. And this is now my question. I feel like they've obviously done a terrific job this team in reinvigorating the spirit and hope of this country yet again. They've initiated a ton of momentum once again. And I think that's part of the reason you saw Jesse Marsh go around and do various media interviews yesterday and also some campaigning and with the supporters. He was in Toronto all day. Mike was drinking beers with some of the rangers, which was awesome. Which is incredible. Like that's a great way to endear yourself to the entire fan base. Agreed. Of course, like it's the easiest way to do it. And it's very simple and he comes across as a very genuine man and somebody that feels like you could just, exactly as you put it, a rashly, have a beer with the guy and you feel like you'd enjoy having a normal conversation with him. But as we look deeper and bigger picture, do we, should we have confidence that what they've done here in the moment of they've established that this Federation is now better equipped of capitalizing on that because we saw that be a problem. The last time this happened where there was a significant momentum and it stalled. And in fact, there were a ton of issues that arose from the success that this team experienced in qualifying for the World Cup. Yeah, it's a great question and true honest answer is we can only, we have to see. So yeah, they had significant momentum in March 2022. They qualify for the World Cup in front of a sold out BMO crowd. They win what was it, four nil or something like that, you know, joyous or a soccer nation, whatever, then they go to Qatar and completely Kirk Plunk and it just spiraled out of control for the next 18 months after. So let's see. So what needs to happen now would became very abundantly clear in watching the matches that mattered. In Copa, America is a candidate needs more depth. And one of the things I asked Marsh was about that. It says two years enough and he said, well, it has to be. But you know, athletes don't grow on trees, talent doesn't develop that quick. Here's where it gets interesting guys. Look at a guy like, like a staccio, a staccio is a naturalized Canadian. Like, yeah, he was born in Ontario. But you know, ever a staccio, bless him, didn't even know what a loony was when we showed it to him. Okay. But these committees on board now, there are 10 players that they could possibly get on board who are playing around the world right now who are not cap committed. There are four of them who could be impactful that are really on the radar that Marsha is going to go see. And I could outline the names, but you know, it's so if you're able to get two of them, three of them, that is significant because, you know, your six, seven of your starters are the ones that move the needle. And then after that, you know, can Jacob Schaffelberg take the next step? Can Ali Ahmed take the next step? Can bombito and Cornelius and, and well, Conan's already has, but you need more. You need more dudes, especially in a tournament that's going to have a lot of travel, it's going to have a lot of heat, it's going to have a lot of humidity because here's the reality of 2026 is this. This is actually a chance for Canada to do something. It is an expanded World Cup field. The opponents are diluted. It's not your parents World Cup where it was a really like people, a greedy bunch of people who want as much cash as they can get. And as a result, you know, suddenly when you talk about four to eight teams, that means the teams of quality are fewer and fewer percentage wise. So there's a chance, but there's still a lot of work to do. And it's one thing to be Venezuela and penalties when they're the around the 50th ranked team in the world. But it's another one we're talking about Argentina and Spain and Germany and Netherlands and everybody else. Maybe this is way too fine of a point to put on it, but I don't know why these things are dancing around to the same part of my brain, but I was thinking a little bit about the CFL. And the point I always make about the CFL specifically in this market Toronto is I'll know it's made it when I don't talk about the state of the CFL, but I talk about the running game or how somebody's going to play defense. And it was so warming to my heart that, yeah, we talked about Davies and we talked about David, but all the conversations I was having, just with friends, I'm not talking about it on the show. They're about Schofelberg, they're about Kone, they're about Bombito after that incredible kick. He took in penalties there. And that was the thing that kind of really showed me where this program is at right now in terms of the level of respect or care that people have for it. And there were always people who cared to that level, but it seems like that's really broken through. Let me give you another top. Let me give you another top. Yeah, please do. What Canada just did, was they basically got to the final four of the NIT, they got a large madness standpoint. They got the final four of the Division II, Division 1 AA ranks. And they did it with, yeah, a few stars, but they also had these hotshot recruits, if you will, that you talked about, the Schofelberg, Koneys, whatever. Now they're moving into D1, now they're moving into faith, beautiful in Carolina and Kansas and Kentucky. And it's like, okay, we're not facing Minot State anymore. So we got to go into the transfer portal. And that's what of the 10 players that they have on their radar and the four they're really targeting. That's why this is important. Because Copa, bless it, is one thing, outside of Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia, what really was the competition. Now you're going up against some giants and Goliath if you get out of the group stage in 2026. And in order to do that, you have to get significant upgrades, not just internally, not just over the next two years with what you have in house. You have to add more, and the CPL, I heard what a statue said, yeah, I just don't know from the next two years, within the domestic pipeline, you're going to have impactful players to take on Niko Williams and company. But you might be able to find them elsewhere in that quote unquote NIL. If you have the neutralized Canadians or National Dual National, whatever the proper term for dual national living, it is. That to me, that's the priority right now in terms of upgrading to get the best 26 possible for 2026. No, that's that's really well said. And, you know, I guess Jesse Marsh will just have to do his bestie on Sanders gets recruiting in that transfer portal. Arash. I think he's going to go about a slightly different way, though, if I had to, if I had to guess. Were you rather go to Toronto, or would you rather go to Boulder, or the coach prime? Yeah. I knew it was Katnip. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. Heck, I mean, Cooper Perry used to get guys to go to Lexington, Kentucky for years and years. So I'm sure if you have the right recruiting pitch, you can do it. I know. Right. I will say it's the last thing I'm going to say, because the staccio has been through it. Marsh said you're going to use the staccio and Davies as recruiters. Yeah. He said, those are my blue chips guys. But then we're going to put a full court press on to try and land some of these guys. So that that's going to be really interesting to kind of follow and launch. We worked a blue chip for a chip reference into the show. We've already won. Arash. Thank you so much, man. Really, really appreciate the chat. Great job with the coverage. And I'm sure we'll bug you again when the time comes. Oh, boy. Thanks, Arash. There it goes. Arash Baddady, sports net reporter. That insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley, North Lexus.com. That was a, that's a good parallel. I honestly would not have thought it that way. You're more hoops head than I would have you had you put two and two together. Yeah. It's a very good analogy from Arash. Not to that degree, because here's the thing with the soccer. There are three major international tournaments. I do consider the Copa to be part of that trio because it goes World Cup Euro Copa America. The reason the Copa America exists, the reason those countries are in the Copa America is because they can't participate in the European championship. So it's not to say that like Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Columbia are incapable of playing in the European championship tournament. They are. They are. It's just different. So it's more of, for me, it's more of the trifecta of those three being the most impactful. That's why this one meant so much for Canada to be in that exact conversation. But it is a fun comparison. And I think there are parallels there for sure because you see it every year. And I all teams that end up being NCAA tournament teams the next year, and there are opportunities that exist there. I do think also Arash made a great point as it pertains to the dual nationals. I love the line that Jesse Marsh used in the interview where he said, I had a saying that I introduced to the team. And he's like, he joke that it was the reason he picked Alfonso Davies be his captain. He goes, I stood in front of the group and I said 26 for 26. What does that mean? And Alfonso Davies was the one that said that's the 26 players who are going to play in the 2026 World Cup because that's our captain. And so I mean, clearly they have an opportunity here to hopefully now actually make a compelling recruiting pitch to guys. That's the other thing. For years and years, we had, whether it was John Herrmann or whoever was in charge prior, I couldn't even tell you to be quite honest, Gunnar, whoever it was. I know you're not looking at me. Well, I don't know. But I'm just like, there were even if you had to try and have these conversations and pursue different athletes that had maybe this decision to make in terms of their national allegiance, what were you pitching them on? Where there was no track record, there was no vision for what the future may entail. And there's no promises of like, well, okay, who are you guys playing in? I mean, we're playing against Panama. Great. Are you playing against Germany? Are you playing Italy? Are you going to ever get to the point of the level playing ends matter exactly with respect that you're not playing in the hex in the conca-calf, you're actually playing in these meaningful tournaments on a real stage with some consequence behind it. Now they're in that position, so it gives even more ammunition to have for Jesse Marsh. And think about the two guys that he referenced in particular as his recruiters. Yeah. It's Alfonso Davies and Steven Eustachio. Davies plays, I mean, obviously, we know, he's currently in Bayern Munich, probably going to go elsewhere. Either way, for one of the biggest clubs. Super up on that and do that. For one of the biggest, you should know that. Okay. For one of the biggest clubs in the world. One of the most expensive, lucrative, attractive, you know, and he's not a free agent, transfer buys in the world. And then Steven Eustachio, who plays for a very reputable club in Porto and has been through that process himself, come on, they will paint a beautiful picture for you. You actually have resources now. So that is massive in trying to attract talent because for the immediate future, they do need to land some of those guys. They're not going to be able to turn out two or three more Ishmael Kone's in the span of two years. It's not going to happen. So you better convert on some of those to help change the ceiling of this team. Even if it's in a slight way, there is there are impactful players. They can go and acquire as recruits and bring them into the full for more immediate success in 26. I mean, Schafflberg is perfect. I kind of point out to it, right? It's like he's 24 like the idea like like think about how long and again, like not everyone's on the exact same linear timeline when you develop, but the idea that Canada, like we're very used to this in a basketball now, but like hockey basketball, it's like, hey, we have the 17 year old phenom. Yes. It's not going to quite work that way in terms of there's some guy just right there on the precipice. That's why the recruiting is going to be so important. And, you know, those guys like born and raised in Spain, but if Spain gets to have a guy named Nico Williams, I think we could do some recruiting. Come on. Come on. Come on. There was a, there was a Macalester playing for Argentina and just like, yeah, come on. We can do it. We can do it. I mean, look at the Americans. The Americans are the embodiment of this. Well, their whole team is essentially that. Yeah. I mean, this has been going on in soccer forever. It's like the whole German team is Polish. I mean, John B. Point for the United States at the Olympics. There's nothing. Come on. Come on. Nothing will ever bother me more just because I wanted to see the freak show that would have been Embiid, Wembley and Goldberg playing at the same time. You would add to try it. Fever rules. Ooh. Just verticality, baby. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was eligible to play with Pascal Siacom. I think that would have been Cameroon too. They have. I believe so. Yeah. That would have been an interesting team. That would have been interesting. I've made my comments clear on hitting your wagon to Pascal Siacom as the man who leads you to the promised land. And if the other man is Joel Embiid, I certainly feel that exact same way about it. Before we, before we continue to talk to JP Rachardi, I got to let you know we're giving away some deaf leopard tickets, deaf leopard and journey coming to Rogers Center on August 2nd and we're giving away tickets to enter. All you have to do is tune into the fan morning show, listen for the code word, then text the code word to 59590 standard message and data rates applied. Today's code word is journey again, text journey to 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win. We're giving away another pair of tickets tomorrow. But if you don't win with us, tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.ca baseball all-star break is upon us. Unfortunately got all-star break and baseball and all the other ones. We got something else to tie us over baseball, all-star break will be a dark type. So who better to talk to us about the state of the game and what are the Blue Jays going to do? Then JP Rachardi, who joins us next, final segment, fan morning show on Sports Snap 59590 the fan. Covering the Blue Jays from an analytical perspective, Jay's talk plus with Blake Murphy. Be sure to subscribe and download Jay's talk on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I just had no idea if we were back there but I was just like, God, what a banger, it's a great tune. It is. We just gave away some tickets. So again, you know, listen to more. You'll be able to do that. But right now, right now, got to wrap up the show and this insider is brought to you by Tom Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley, North Lexus.com, very, very pleased to be joined by JP Rachardi, host of the new podcast, the brush pack with JP, former GM of the J's, JP, thanks so much for jumping on. I always appreciate you taking the time. How are you guys doing? Doing well. Doing well. Well, truth be told, it's my first day back from vacation. So like, I'm more energized than I am. I've had my like fighting wits about me, but it's also like the last segment of a show on the first day back from vacay. So the, the energy is strong. That's right. Okay. See, that's why you're a leader of men. That's right. Okay. JP, all star breaking baseball. What was this like, you know, as a GM, we always think of these kind of big tentpole moments, everybody's together and, you know, it's not to say all the GMs are, are at the all star game. I imagine people like to get a little time away, but what does this period of time do? Is it a, is it a reset? Is it a hardening of where you're at on your team or, or we may be making too big of a deal of it, just cause it's kind of a tentpole mark in the, in the season. Well, I just think it's, it's a part of the season where it's, you can mark something off, but most GMs have been working all along trying to figure out what they're going to do with the training deadline, whether you're a buyer or seller. So I think, uh, I think everybody's just getting their ducks in order, maybe spending a couple of days with their families a little bit of quiet time, but the phone never stops ringing. You never stop working. And I think, like I said, you got about two and a half weeks left. So most teams are trying to hit that hard deadline and see how they want to approach it. Yeah, we're precisely two weeks away from the deadline, two weeks as of today, Tuesday the 30th will be the major league baseball trade deadline in 2024. In your experience, uh, JP, when, when do you find that talk sort of start to pick up? Like, like, how does that process of fold? I've always been curious. Cause, you know, early on, I can imagine teams, there are teams that maybe have more urgency than others. But what does that look like for a general manager for a front office from the start of a season in April when, hey, opening day rolls around to now as you're approaching the deadline. How do the, how does, how do trade talks sort of evolve throughout the course of a season before you finally reach the point where you're striking a deal with the team? Well, you just, you strike up conversations with teams that you know what you want to do. And then you start lining up with teams and try to see you identify people on other teams that you want and hopefully other teams are doing the same thing to you. And you know, you stop these dialogues going in and then it basically comes down to who's more aggressive than the other guy. You know, if someone's really aggressive and they want to get something done, they push the other guy and it's kind of like dating. I hate to say it. You guys being persistent, you know, you got to just be out there and you got to just keep pounding the table and staying on top of people and, you know, the guys who are usually aggressive or the guys usually come up with something, but, you know, obviously, if you're trying to buy, you know, you're trying to add. So you'll be in as aggressive as you could possibly be. And if you're trying to get rid of players, sometimes that's a little harder because you might have to eat some money and that takes a little bit of longer of a process. Okay. So from a seller standpoint, and that certainly feels like where the J's are probably at this particular juncture, um, I mean, A, when do you know it's the appropriate time to sort of, I mean, you're never going to publicly declare that. But when do you know it's the appropriate time to at least start weighing some of those decisions and then be when, when do you, how do you drum up a market? Like I think of a guy like you say, Kakuchi, for example, and I would imagine, you know, he's had a pretty solid season. There's a body work there. He there's, I mean, across baseball, there is a notion and a belief that he is probably going to be on the move here. But how do you drum up enough of a market to ensure that you're trying to maximize what the return for that player might be? Wow. Look, you guys are making way too much of this that it is. You just pick up the phone. You call the Orioles. You call, you know, the Yankees, you call the Red Sox, say, listen, we got a left-handed, we're good stuff. Are you interested in them? Here's this contract. Would you give us this guy? And if they say no, say, okay, how about if we ate some money? Would you give us a little bit more and you just thought that, you know, it's, it becomes basically other guy out front, pound in the table, saying I'm open for business and you call people. I mean, you've got to believe there's 15 teams in baseball that can use that left-handed picture. Yep. So, you know, business and drumming up shouldn't be hard. Now it just comes down to, you know, what you can maximize him into getting and obviously the more money you eat, the better prospect you're going to get. Yeah. It's funny how that's certainly become a big, big part of things and not just lately. It's always kind of been the way, but it's maybe a little more kind of public knowledge than it, than it once was, you know, I think when we, when we talk about teams at the deadline, I mean, they have big, big decisions to make. How do you feel about, you know, trading players with term at this time and how much more difficult or maybe easier can that be just in your experience dealing with the, with, you know, the deadline in and of itself? Well, what do you mean by term? Well, I mean, so we're looking at the J's here. It's like we have a guy like Kakuchi who he is a free agent to be or you have somebody like Gosman who has maybe not been the full kind of Kevin Gosman of himself, but, you know, as recently as last year, this was a guy who was all-star level. Do you think there'd be a market for a player like that who still has, I forget what exactly it is, either two or maybe two years left on the deal. Right. I don't think all you have to do is look at Chris Sale, right? Chris Sale got moved with it with the year and the Red Sox, I think, gave them $17 million. So I don't know what Gosman has coming to him, but I think if the Blue Jays want to move Gosman and they want to eat some money, they'll get a good play for him. You can control him for two years. He's got a good arm, you know, especially if it's a team that he hasn't had to go there and try to be the savior, which is probably not a number one. So if he went to the Yankees as a fourth starter, if he went, you know, to another club as a third or fourth starter, I mean, and you control him for the next two years, you know, they have to weigh that out. But everybody that gets moved, I got to believe there's going to be money involved because most teams today don't want to take on that money. Yeah. I mean, I got my own. I don't have as much as these teams, but I don't want to spend it either if someone's going to take on some of the freight. I'm certainly happy to have it there. You know, one of the other big conversations we've been having here is the idea of, you know, extending one of, you know, it's been bow or flat for the last two years, but it seems like things would be much more likely with Guerrero. Now, I mean, you saw him last night at the home run Derby. He's yucking it up with, with Hernandez there. How much do you think that having Laddie kind of locked up would be it would make things easier in terms of the rebuild? Because there have been kind of two schools of thought of go complete scorcher trade these guys for what you can get and just kind of start over or the idea of you want to kind of have a pillar at the center of this thing. And it's not like Laddie is 28 years old where you have a more finite amount of time. How would you kind of go about it? And obviously there's a dollar figure on all these things, but would you be more inclined to trade the player and get the most you could or kind of try to build around them? Well, I wouldn't build around them if he was the only guy that's going to be left standing because we had Carlos Delgado in Toronto and he was a great player. And he was one of the best hitters I've ever been around. And I think a borderline Hall of Famer, but Carlos was making 33% of my payroll. I had one guy making $18 million on a $50 million payroll. So having Carlos Delgado for me, it wasn't cost effective. Great player. If I had him with some other great players, oh my God, I'd be doing cartwheels. But if you have Ladd Guerrero and he's the only one player that you have and the rest of the guys around them are, you know, you're trying to build this up. What good is having Ladd Guerrero? So to me, if you're not all in and you're going to keep Guerrero and Beshette, I would guy would try to move both of them and try to have a restart. JP, when it comes to the current playoff structure in baseball, what's your position on the third wildcard? Like how do you feel about how the third wildcard has sort of impacted the competitive balance and more so even some of the decision making that we've seen as it relates to teams and how they approach trade deadlines? Like it just feels like now there's an idea or a notion that if you just get in, that's the goal more than it is about, okay, how am I building out a team that is going to be at the top end of trying to put us in the best position of Winter World series? It feels like the priorities have maybe shifted slightly and it's created an interesting dynamic. Yeah. That's a really good question. Listen, when I was a GM, I wish we had it because I would have made the playoffs three times, maybe four times. So I would have told you back then I would have loved it. But as a more of a traditionalist, I look at it, I don't think it's great for our game that teams with 83, 84 wins can get to the World Series. I get it. But if you think of our game, our game's the one game that if you got starting pitching and it's decent starting pitching like Arizona did last year, you could go somewhere and win a series. If you're the eighth seed in the NBA, you're not beating the number one seed. Very seldom when hockey doesn't happen. I know it happens occasionally. I can live with it with the Bruins. I still have a flak on Florida, but for the most part, the better teams usually come out. I like a couple of wild cards. I don't like that last wild card. I think what happens is teams hide behind it because and I'm looking at the standings right now and there's some teams that are coming out of the second half and this schedule is very favorable to them, but they have five games under 500. I look at this schedule. It's so weak. They play like 22, 23 teams out of their next 40 that are under 500. They could flip the script real fast. Maybe it's going to be an 84 win team and you get in, you get in and your fans happy. I'm sure they are. But at the end of the day, you're really going to win this thing. So I think you're built to win, you're built to try to win it all. And I think this last wild card has in some ways, it's good in some ways, it's bad, but I would revert more to this list. I'd rather see a team with 88, 89, 90 wins to get in. Yeah, I'm very much of the same way. You talk about traditionalists and I tend to, I wholeheartedly agree with you there. One thing that we're going to see in the all-star game tonight, I think it's pretty untraditional is the idea of giving a rookie the honor of starting the all-star game. I love it. Paul Skienz has been one of, if not, the best stories in baseball this year. Very easy for people to wrap their head around, they just throw one-on-one all the time and he barely gives up any hits. What do you make the idea of baseball kind of pushing him to the forefront? Having him start tonight's game, I could have easily seen a decade ago them saying, "Hey, kid, congrats. Go sit on the bench and watch us all play." And what we work all the relievers and the other starters who have kind of waited their turn. Well, what do you make of him getting the starting nod tonight? Hey, you guys had your coffee today, you're asking good question. Well, thank you. I think it's great. You know, gone are the days of the American League and nationally hating each other and trying to win and trying to, you know, now the game has become a showcase. And I think it's great that we're showcasing our really good players and they're waking up and realizing this guy needs to be front and center. And we're going to highlight our better players. So I think anything they do to spread the game, to make these players more front and center where people say, "Wow, look at the stars Major League Baseball has," because like I said, it used to really matter in the 30s and the 50s and the 70s. If you won the all-star game, you had bragging rights. I don't think anybody cares. But I think that we could showcase these really good young players and even the veteran players. I think it's great for our game and it's only going to keep our game in the spotlight. JP, a little birdie, told me maybe you were going to hit a little white ball today. So if that's true, hit him straight. I just got back from a golf trip myself. So thanks so much for taking the time. I really enjoyed it. I appreciate it. Yep. 1040, teeing him up. There we go. There it is. And please check out the brush back with JP wherever you get your pods. That insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you could expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit DonValleyNorthlexus.com. Okay. This is something that I was just thinking about and, you know, I've seen a lot of clips going around. I don't know if like everybody's, you know, social algorithms, different, whatever, keep getting force fed these videos of like, and it's just probably the vintage I am or whatever. But like the 98, it's like the hell all star team for 98 was that. And part of it is it's just you can never feel the same way about someone as you did when you're 11 years old or whatever, whatever the age is. But I do feel a bit of that way. It's like, do me wrong. I look at some of this lineup tonight and I'm like, Oh my goodness, charge and soda. But sure. There's just something about it. I'm looking at these old videos, these lines, I'm like, Oh God, nothing but Hall of Famers in there. And seriously, it's just, it is remarkable. I love, love, love that skiing is getting to start tonight. He has been, you know, Ben, he's not here to do it, but he can attest. It's like, that's the thing I probably talk as a year off about three days a week and the breaks. Just like, Oh, did you see what that night? It's an incredible, incredible, incredible story. And I love that they're leaning into it. Totally. I love that they're embracing it. Like historically, as you alluded to with JP there, they've sort of tried to steer away from this stuff, as opposed to like jumping in knee deep and saying, let's do it. This is there a full embrace right now of saying, this is the big one of the biggest stars in our sport. We would be silly not to showcase him in the biggest possible stage that we have. Let's do it. And he's, he's embraced it. He's got a great temperament. I've been banging this drum for a while too, as certainly as the resume has built up, it's remarkable what he's done. And I'm really excited for it. I really hope, Gunnar, if we look at the lineup for the American League, judge is batting fourth. So I hope somebody gets on base and I don't, I know, but I want, well, that that either one way or the other, I hope we see him face judge. That is something I really do want to see. And I hope we get that privilege tonight. Yeah. So do I, before he's teammates with the washed up version of judging like six years. You know, come on. You know, look, I love to live here in a world where it's not going to continue to stick. It's got pirates and their fans like that. Oh, no, I would love for the repeat of Gary Cole. Yeah. Of course. I just, I also, here's the different. You want to know the big difference between Gary Cole and Paul Skeens, he'd have a better answer for spider tack questions than like, I don't, I don't, I never sticky stuff. I don't know what you're talking about. Come on. I would love the world where Paul Skeens just leads a pirates team on some great and they get a couple of those. I would love, love love to see that we, we know the way this stuff works in, in this sport specifically, almost more so than any other with team control. And again, please like, hey, pirates, especially not hurting the J is going to go, let's go give them all the money in the world. I'd love love to see it. I think it's great that you're seeing that we have seen this a bit in the past, not as much leaning into it. I'm not going to put Alec Manoa when he was in the all star game on the level with what Skeens has done this year. But I mean, we remember the coming out party that we already knew how great Manoa was, but then the performance in Smoltz is calling Smoltz is telling him to shake off and calling his pitches. Oh, what do you want here? That was excellent. And you know, I don't think we need a moment like that from Skeens because he's already had so many more of them, but I just think, again, it's, it's so finally smart of the sport to lean into it because I'm telling you a decade ago, they would have told him to sit there. Maybe he gets the sixth inning, but if there's four locked up and closures, he's not. So 100%. Yeah. 100%. I can, I can hear the spoiler for you. We're not getting that moment because he's not that type of personality. He's not. He's not as vivacious. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's the thing. You know, from the, from the Pirates Club hosts, it's like, you know, that Brian Reynolds and him or the two. Yeah, yeah, the two also. And they go. Space, space, space, space. What did you see? I mean, did you see how Tori Lovelo broke the news to him on the Dan Patrick Show and then his, like, I was like, okay, can we get a little bit of him? It was deadpan. He's like, I really appreciate the honor. Well, hey, here's the thing though. And I agree, like this mileage may vary forever, but it's like, this is Captain America. Oh, big time. He's drawing the football before the game. Oh, yeah. He says he wants to go serve in the army when his careers. It looks like his pregame routine is more of a monetary routine. Right. It is he, he just, and this is the, this is the thing that I think we always get to bog down in is we think when you have to sell something and I don't have a problem with him looking this way, it has to look like Vlad where everything is sunshine. We love people who are just themselves. We have loved, loved, loved jerks and sports forever. So long as they're your jerk or a winning jerk or whatever way you want to put it, right? It's like Tom Brady, bit of a jerk. Go watch the Brady Rose. They'll tell you all about it. Go watch him screaming at his teammates. He didn't change who he was. He was just Mr. winner guy and then, you know, again, like Dylan Brooks is our jerk right now. Yeah, that's right. That's right. What a great example. We don't need him to sell the game to be a different version of himself. Oh man. This is a great show today. I think you should all thank me for not subjecting you to the All-Star Game Anthem again last night. There were some people here. I won't name names. Jeff has a party who's like, we have the clip all queued up. People have suffered enough. Do you not remember the traffic story we did? Dan Yell-A. I'd like to address something before we finish today though. Yeah. It's very mean of Ben Ennis. My understanding is he didn't good morning with you when he was gone. I told him to. Did you really? I will. We'll be having words via text. Yeah. But that's not going to happen today. I tried to make eye contact right at the end of the book to like sink it up. Because we're doing it right now. It's been a wonderful addition to the fan morning show. Good morning. (upbeat music) (dramatic music)
