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Go to Shopify.com/MLB podcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com/MLB podcast. Let's talk to him. He's the man. All to see MLB inside of Brett Boone, inside a call presented by Granger. Brett, it's good to have you back on, obviously we're talking about the Braves or nine games behind the Phillies. Well, maybe we're freaking out more than we should be. I don't know, man. Can you talk us off the ledge? Because I don't know. Maybe we're spoiled. Yeah, we're spoiled. And we're used to seeing this team being out in front of this division. But they're taking on the Giants in a game two of a three game set tonight and then the Phillies come in town. What were you at with our Braves right now? It's July 3rd. All right, I've been doing, you know, I've been doing a lot of reflecting here and I'm trying to come up with it. Yeah, I do. I do, you know, I'm talking at the pod. The people in San Diego, the people in Seattle who are just tickled the death that they're above 500 brave the expectations and you set those expectations. That comes with winning. People start to expect it, you know, outside in New York, Atlanta is one of the few markets that really year in and year out. It's like, no, we, we, you've set the bar now. We expect it. We want to go to the World Series and I love that about it. But I'm looking at the game in 2024. It's a completely different game, you know, years ago and I've covered this before on your show, the 162 was so crucial. It was a marathon at the end, man, if I was on a team that won the division, you'd finish that schedule and go, wow. And if you won the division, you were one of the best teams in baseball. It's a different, it's a different platform now. It's, it's, it's all about getting a seat at the table. I think in modern day, you're seeing the end, 24. People getting injured so much and it affects the dynamic of a team because you have stars going down for teams all around baseball and that affects how they play. You take two of the big guys down and that's going to affect everybody else. You take two of their guys out of the rotation and, and, injuries are at an all-time high. I've never seen anything like it. That being said, I think what's important now, it's not how you're playing. I saw the Yankees come through here in San Diego about three, four weeks ago. I watched that team play and anyone I talked to, I said, you do not want to play the Yankees right now, they can't, they're strong and they're, they, they want three out of their last 10 games. They look like a completely different team. Yes, Giancarlo Stanton went down, they're, they're banged up throughout the rotation. It looks like a little fatigue in that rotation, but my point is you want to place yourself to have a seat at the table come postseason and the team that gets healthy, seat at that table in the postseason, that's the time to play your best baseball and it really, it's not crucial to have that overwhelming win 100 game season that in years past, maybe you had to do that just to get into the postseason. So it's a different dynamic. I think the team that get healthy at the right time, hit the ground run and come playoff time, that's the formula these days and it's not necessarily the best team going forward. You're going to see one in the World Series, it's the hottest team. Brett, you were part of a team in 99 that kind of over achieved with the Braves. We've seen teams that with Bobby Cox loaded had all those Cy Young award winners, you know, lineups going from the crime dog to Sheffield and everybody else that played for the Braves is just one of the best three teams in baseball every year. So you're right. Best team doesn't always win. I just want to be the Diamondbacks, you know, I mean, I don't care if I'm not looking for style points at this point, you know, nine games, over 500, but the Phillies just seem like they're, they are really dialed in there without Schorber and Bryce Harper and they've won seven of their last 10. Well, I think the key to the Phillies, just like the Seattle Mariners are leading their division. Now Houston's on their heels. They won, you know, nine, nine out of their last 10 ball games and Houston went from dead and gone. We already buried them to, they're knocking on the door in that division. So there's teams that are getting hot right now, but, but I don't know when it, when it comes to this building, they're different. They're like the Seattle Mariners where they can, they can, they can kind of weather the storm with a real motel, being out of Harper, being out Schorber all on the IL right now because of that starting rotation. When you go Wheeler, Nola, Suarez, Sanchez, you have the ability that a lot of teams don't have when your big guys are, are banged up on the offensive side, you can still weather the storm. Dilly, that's as good as starting rotation as it is in the game of baseball right now. I think that's why you see the Phillies where they are. When they get locked and loaded, everybody healthy on that roster. I don't know if there's a better clean and baseball, Brett. Are you surprised at what the Milwaukee Brewers are doing? Listen, Craig council leaves and goes to the Cubs and everybody was hot, right? Oh, he's a traitor. They're, they're peoed and now the Cubs are like in last place and here the Brewers are leading the central and everybody thought that they'd take a step back. That has not been the case. Yeah, absolutely. And it just goes to my point, you know, we put all this on the manager and how important the manager. Listen, I played this game a long time. There's not too many times after a game I sat around with my buddies having a beer saying, oh, the manager really screwed us tonight. No, it's players. We win, we win games, we lose games. What you do is the great managers I got to play for, and I got to play for a lot of them. They manage people. They manage personalities. They put their personalities and their egos in that room. They put them in the best position to succeed. That's what the great managers do. Once the game starts, it's in the players hand, yeah, you got to bring in the left, bring in the righty. Nowadays, the computer can do that. It's about managing people. You get, Craig, counsel, he goes to the Cubs, oh, no, what are we going to do without our manager? What you're going to do is win and you're leading the division and I think something, you know, it gets overlooked. Tampa Bay comes to mind for me at developing a culture, Kevin Cash and that front office there. They've really developed the culture. You go into Tampa Bay Rays and I can't even name Tampa Bay players on a year to your basis because they're going in and out so much. But when you walk into that clubhouse and spring training, there's something in there that says, no, we expect to win here. Now, they haven't won a World Series, but they're not on that postseason door. Every single season and you can't name the players on the field because they change so much. They change on a yearly basis. I think I look at the Milwaukee Brewers and that's what they've done. They've created a culture of Milwaukee where you come in and those players, whoever they may be, people that you add in the offseason, they come in there with an expectation of, oh, we're in Milwaukee. We're going to win the division if we don't, we're going to the playoffs. And I think that's something that's really not prevalent in today's game. Yeah, the teams that have the overwhelming talent year in and year out, yes, they have that culture, but that's a lot of talent. Milwaukee always has good talent, but when you thought they're getting run to their number one starter burns, you thought, well, Milwaukee, this can be a down here now. They're sitting there right now in the middle of the hunt like they always are at 51 and 35. I think it's a culture. It is. Brad Boone, guys are honestly baseball inside our live at Taco Mac and what stock on Dukes and Bell, the, the pirates are like everybody's feeder system, but we just saw the pirates come through. Great young pitchers. They got one of the great young hitters at shortstop. I just, I feel for those folks, Brett, I don't know if you ever played in your experience in the big leagues, a team that just didn't have the resources and just would see talent just gets stolen like the like the pirates seemed to every year. Yeah, it's, it's kind of, you know, and I don't really know what the answer is for that, you know, with, with the Pittsburgh ball club, it's the pirates are kind of an iconic team. I, I go back into my childhood in the 70s, the big bad buckles and I remember Bill mad rock. You know, and I remember. We are family. Oh, it was unbelievable. They were there and they were mean, you know, yet, Bert Blyleven on the hill, not hitting people in the head. And that's just the way Warren, no, poor Marty was in, was in Montreal. I'm trying to think of the state parkers that way, Omar Moreno, the guy at center field. And you know, it just, I don't know, there's so much history in Pittsburgh to see where they are now. And they do have talent. The schemes kid has brought a lot of attention, a lot of eyeballs to the Pittsburgh pirates, and he's a sensation, you know, hopefully he can stay healthy mentioning health earlier on in the program. He's a, he, he's the, my, my generation version of the carry wood. He's the last generation version of a Steven Strasburg. It's, it's a once, once in a lifetime, like a generational talent. And he's bringing a lot that a lot of that Pittsburgh right now. But if it has any staying power, if they're going to make the postseason, they're kind of working with it, you know, the four games under 500, I don't think it's going to be in the cards for them this year. They got to find a way. Ownership's got to find a way to compete. If you're talking about just finances, go to Tampa Bay. They have some kind of formula where they don't have the finances. In my day, the Oakland age and American like West were always at the bottom of the payroll. But I'll tell you what, good team year and a year out, winning 100 games right now, down on their luck. I don't know what's going on in Oakland, but it can be done with limited costs. Insider calls brought to you by Granger for the ones who get it done. Granger offers professional grades and solutions. We're talking with our buddy, Odyssey, MLB insider Brett Boone. All right. Last thing for me. And that is home run Derby. Otani says he won't participate. What's your opinion on it? Does it drain you? Do you want guys that are on a heater to participate? I mean, we've talked time and time again over the years about curse. Yeah. I don't believe in that at all. It's like the old golf thing. Do you not play golf on your day off or during the season because the mess is with your swing? No, I don't play golf because I can't play 18 holes and I got a 90 game. But it doesn't mess with my swing. I was fortunate enough in two home run Durbies. One went OK. One didn't go so good, but when I was playing, I look back now as a 55-year-old man looking at my what I got to do. Man, it's fleeting. It's so quick. You know, I played almost 15 years and it went by in the blink and I think the players should have graced the game every time you get invited to an all-star game, happily get on that plane and go there. Don't tell me you're growing hurts. If you get invited to a home run Derby, that's what the public wants to see. That's what the fans want to see. That's what I want to see. I want to see an Otani. I want to see an Aaron judge. That's what the baseball world wants. It grows the game. There's nothing but good for the game. My advice is embrace it. Do everything you can when you're lucky enough to play this game for a living because one day it's going to be gone and I can speak to it now being 15 years retired that I would love to do it. I got to do two. I screwed up the second one. I came home. My teammates said to me, "Boonie, that was horrible. You're home run Derby." I looked at him and I said, "Listen, before you get invited or qualify for a home run Derby, I don't want to hear it from you because you've got no opinion." I had that. You faced a little scrutiny in the second half. You don't do good in the home run Derby, but it's all good on to just the next official. I want to see Otani and I want to see Judge in the home run Derby because that's what the baseball world wants to see. I know we'll have some time next week or next time. We've visited to talk about the All-Star game, but the one, you know, you played in the '98. It was your first when your dad was a four-time All-Star. What was that? Were you just like Star-Struck? Were you like, "How about it? How about it? How about it? What did your first All-Star game?" You know what? Absolutely. It was the first time in the world. So, you know, I grew up. My childhood was in big league club houses in Philadelphia and Anaheim, and I was around them all the time, so the shock in awe wasn't that big of a deal to me. But I'll tell you, when I put the uniform on as a player and I did this for a living, I had to receive the check to do this, I wasn't as long as any other player. And to walk in that first All-Star game locker run, I remember it was in Colorado, and I'm just trying to be cool, play it like no big deal. Yeah, of course I'm at the All-Star game. But inside, that was just another goal that we set out as little kids. You know, when you're a little later, I want to be a big later, and when you're in the minor league, I want to be a big later, big later, I want to be an All-Star. And then you get, you start to add up these credentials. I was a kid in a candy store. I didn't know the protocol. I brought my jersey, and I'm like, you know, I'm asking people like, "Hey, do they sign them?" Yeah, Brett, there's a big room, whatever you want. I get it in there, but when guys go in and they come out, they don't go back in there. So, I was getting all my stuff, lining it up, and just listening to guys that I've been playing with and against for years, and the conversations that went on, yeah, that first All-Star game, I was a kid in a candy shop, a kid in a candy shop, and man, it's pretty awesome. And it didn't matter, a child that was like growing up in those club houses, nothing changes when you do it on your own merits as a big, really ball player versus a little kid probably bugging the crap. Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express business gold card. You can earn four times points on your top two eligible spending categories every month, like transit, U.S. restaurants, and gas stations. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Learn more times points at up to $150,000 in purchases per year. Terms apply. 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