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Track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. With Shopify POS, you can accept credit cards, mobile payments, and every other major payment method all with low fees and transparent pricing. Starting on day one. Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/mlbpodcast. All lowercase. Go to shopify.com/mlbpodcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com/mlbpodcast. All right, let's get on to the... We talked off-camera the other day a little bit and I think I use the term to you. I think the red socks are sneaky good. You're on the ground, you see it on a regular basis. I think the Yankees in Baltimore and rightfully so stole a lot of the headlines. I think for the first half of the season have been two of the best teams. I think there's four elite teams in the game. I think two of them are Baltimore and the Yankees, although recently Yankees have fallen on some tough times, had some injuries been banged up a little bit. Let's go through the East real quick before we get to the red socks. We'll save the big extravaganza for the end. Talk to me what you've seen so far about the top guys, the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, Baltimore Orioles to me, Rob, and I'll let you go on this. They won 100 games a year ago, 101 games, I believe. I wasn't all in on them this year and I thought, no, it was nice, they won 101 games. It's a feel-good story. Yeah, a lot of young talent. I don't think they're ready to win 101 games again. I was dead wrong. I watched this team. These guys are electric, they're young, they're talented, they're not scared. They're pitching better than I thought big pitch burns has been a big acquisition, putting him in the top of the rotation over there. What have you seen so far from that Baltimore, that young, exciting Baltimore royalty? Well, I think they are the best team right now and I think it's pretty obvious too that if they want to get aggressive and once you have the new ownership group, David Rubenstein, and you had him come in and immediately you have the burns trade right after that. Say, "Okay, here we go. This is exactly what we're talking about." They're finally being a little aggressive and understanding the urgency and understanding what they have to work with in terms of getting some of these players that will help that urgency. But I think that burns has made a huge difference. I think but though now you go out and get another starter. If you go out and get another starter, a legit starter, I mean a starter that is going to start in a postseason game, then I don't think there's any question that from top to bottom what you have is a dynamic team, like you said, a young team. This is another factor of this, is that young teams, man, in this day and age of baseball, it works. If you have a good young, talented team in the grind of a baseball season who just is showing up and loving life and not feeling the aches and pains, it works. This is a really, really talented young team, which obviously has more guys coming up, but I just feel like you're there, but if you're the Orioles, you do not want to be blindsided when it comes to what postseason series and being caught short when it comes to your starting pitching. Yeah. They do need another starting pitch and with Braddish, means going down, both of them opted for Tommy John's surgery. My one, you know, and you know who I'm really impressed with, he gets a lot of headlines but Gunner's getting all the headlines this year and he's been an MVP candidate since day one, but I'll tell you what, this Adley Rushman kid, he's good and I don't mean just pretty good. He does a great job handling the pitching staff, catch throw is excellent, but I don't really look at that. I just look at the whole pet. This kid's like, and I don't want to give him too much because he hasn't, he doesn't have the body of work yet, but to me, he's every bit what Posey was. He's got that demeanor, he reminds me of him, switch hitter and this sucker, every, and maybe it's just, you know, those guys you get robbed that it seems like every time you watch them, they do something good or certain guys, every time you watch them, they don't get hit and you don't know how their numbers are where they are. Every time I turn the TV on and I catch the Orioles for a minute, seems like Adley Rushman comes up and he always does something that blows me out like he did it again. This guy should be hitting 500. Every time I see him, he gets a hit. He's just really special to me. My question to you is, this season out for the year is Batista, arguably the best-closer in game and there's a lot of good ones right now, a lot of dynamic guys. Getting to the postseason, are they going to be okay with Kimball with his recent struggles in the postseason? Is he enough to be at the end of that bullpen for Baltimore and is that, is that a question mark for them? Yeah. Yes. I mean, I don't think there's any question about it and I always, when I talk about Kimball, I always have to have the caveat of saying, "Hey, listen, unbelievable career. I've seen him at the height of Craig Kimball. He's rejuvenated himself for the last couple of years and he will help you get to the finish line." But Brett, you go back to last year, last postseason and I've seen other postseason that Craig has been in and you start with the Marlin series, that Philly is for a series. Yeah, he got the save, but it looked different. And so when they went into that Diamondbacks series, I was talking to an executive and I said, and they were talking about how talented the Phillies were, I said, "Yeah, but you know what? They're going to pitch Kimball at really important times and the Kimball that I'm seeing in the postseason isn't necessarily a guy that you say, that's the guy who's going to shut down this game. And sure enough, it didn't happen. Now, maybe I'm being unfair to Craig Kimball, but for me, if I'm running the Orioles, I have a fail-safe plan in place. I think when we talk about a starter, I don't think you can just say, "There's the guy, there's the guy who's going to close out the postseason game for you." So it's a good point by you. So the short answer is, yeah, I think they needed somebody else to really cover yourself if you do go the other way. Now, the reason I bring it up is because I have those feelings. When Kimball comes into the game, I was watching the Yankee game the other day and they were talking about the last time he was at Yankee Sam because this year, they had to give him a few days off, take him out of that closer role, they ended up incorporating him back in it. He's been doing well again. I think he's got an earning in the mid-twos, but they were talking about it in New York and they said, "Oh, are they going to bring him in? This is where it happened last time." And I'm kind of wondering, "All right, let me watch what unfolds here. Turn up, they bring him and he gives it up." And I went, "That's kind of the feeling that you've had with Kimball." I think across the board, and not just me and not just Rob Bradford, but a lot of guys, a lot of it's been in the postseason because unless you're in the local market, you probably don't watch it. Kimball until you get to the postseason, but I'm with you. He's got that feeling like, and believe me, it's not just me and you, everybody feels it. I don't want to give any disrespect to Craig Kimball, as you said at the top, a hell of a career, a great career and well accomplished, but at this stage, it's just the feeling we get. And I'm not going to lie about it, it's just the feeling you get in it, everybody gets it. Where are you kind of surprised when they're constructing this team? All you used to said, Batis is out that Kimball was the guy that they're saying, "There's a replacement for Felix Batista." I mean, I was, because I just felt like, especially after what happened in the postseason, that doesn't seem like for a team as good as this, that doesn't seem like the certainty that you're looking for. Yeah, and now I'm going to get Kimball hate mail. That's all right. That's all right. That's all right. It's what we do. All right. Moving on to the Yankees, another team that was a little bit surprising to me, Rob, how they got out of the gate. They were that good. I looked at Cole going down at the beginning of the season. I thought, "You know, they've got some talent in that starting rotation, but there's no way they're good enough to play." At this level, Stanton was a huge question mark until recently went on the IEL. Stanton, to me, has been the most important part. Yes, Soto came over. He's been an MVP candidate. Aaron Judge is the best player in the world, but to me, Stanton was the key. He needed to be a presence in the lineup. He's been every bit that thus far. Like I said, recently went on the IEL. Look at this team up and down. Your thoughts at this stage of the season, are they good enough? If not, where do they need to improve? Well, I think you're going to have to have Louis Hill in some of these pitchers hang on, and you have to have Garrett Cole be good. I think they'll score runs, I do, and throw them in as well. You have, it's not a news flash that the teams, you have to position yourself. You could have be a really, really good team. You can win a division, but let's talk it with some of the Dodgers. They know this as well, that's great, but you better have your starting pitching lined up and pitching well when the rubber meets the road in October. That's what I worry a little bit about the Yankees and wonder if they're going to cover themselves a little bit in that respect at the deadline, but I just, I mean, I'll be fascinated to get your point of view. We just had on Rich Hill, it's coming on tomorrow, we just taped it. We were talking about leadership, excuse me, leadership in the clubhouse and the importance of player leadership, and that clip, and your brother does an awesome job with the best leadership in the game, I'm not just saying that, but to have that player where Aaron Judge walks up alongside of Marcus Roman and just said, hey, you know, excuse me, this isn't really how we do things, you know, we don't play in the field as I'm paraphrasing, but to have that impact, to have that guy who is steering the ship through all this stuff that we're talking about, that is a difference maker for me, it just is, and he's a great player Aaron Judge, but that just, you know, I mean, to have a player be able to have that guy in that clubhouse do that, whether it's Strollman or Verdugo or whoever else, that is a huge check mark in the favor of the Yankees, I think. Yeah, it's true and you got to have it, Rob, you got to have that type of policing internally. You know, that's not up to the manager, that's not up to a coaching staff. You got a guy like Aaron Judge, you know, he's got the respect and the admiration of pretty much everybody, the way he's going about his business, kind of passed on the torch from jitter to Aaron Judge, I couldn't imagine a better guy, just the way he carries himself and then, you know, the numbers he puts up are ridiculous. I think he's the best player in baseball, you know, you talk about Otani, a healthy Aaron Judge to me is the only man in the game right now that's capable of hitting 60 plus home runs and hitting over 300, which is a rare thing we see today, guys that hit 300. Aaron Judge has got that unbelievable combo. I mean, he's hitting Rob, he's hitting pop-ups, they go out just because he's so big and he's got so much leverage, I used to, I played with Richie Sexton for one year, I remember taking batting practice with him and he, he's got, they're so big and they have so much leverage and he's sitting there and he's flicking balls and they're going where my balls are going on. You know, when I'm back legging it, I'm in perfect position, I said, oh, Richie, must be nice to have that kind of leverage and just flick balls out of the park and he looked at me and goes, oh yeah, but it must be nice having those little short arms. So nothing, you know, not as much can go wrong. So yeah, there's an advantage to having shorter limbs. Yeah, less can go wrong, but I'll take that leverage all day long. Aaron Judge definitely has it. Good points on that, you know, touching on the Strowman situation the other day. But I don't, you know, I'm not one of those ex players that gets ahead of myself and says, oh, I know what he did. You've got to be on the field. You've got to feel it. If he did what I think he did, which was reacting emotionally to Torres's play. And by the way, Torres turned a decent double play. It didn't look any different than every double play ever turns. If I'm at second base and that happens from one of my pitch, those are, those are fighting words right there. Those aren't, oh, I'm just not going to talk to you because I'm mad at you. Let's go under the, let's go under the, under the stands and let's go. You don't do that to me on the field. That is the last thing you do. I've seen guys getting fights over that stuff before and I think, I think you should. You never show up a teammate ever on the field when the cameras are rolling. If that's what happens, Strowman knows better than that. I think Aaron Judge handles it. The most important thing team to team is you get it squashed, you get it handled in house and you're moving on the next day. So hopefully that's, that's what, and you hear Strowman's comments, you know, I know, listen, I mean, it's comments to the media, but he said the right thing. Right. He did. Yeah. And so you're right. I mean, the, the fact is is that now Strowman knows, I don't know like what type of like, who has, who has confronted Strowman in the past if these like this have happened. But I know this. I don't remember seeing anyone do what Judge did with Strowman, which is like, what, like 10 seconds, right, but, but do that and like, okay, you know, he's up. He's probably not doing it again to your point. Right. Right. And it's kind of just a moment. Excuse my French is cut that shit out. Yeah. We don't, we don't play that bullshit here in New York and, and with Aaron Judge having that captain thing, which I laugh, be the captain, there's no captains of baseball. No, thank you. Thank you. That's for hockey. But, uh, you know, said captain, you know, I, I think it was poignant and I think it's moving on. That's the key to great teams drop and all the great teams I've been on. There's no BS that gets out that, that gets us off track. Everything is handled in house. When something happens, you squash it right now and whatever the controversy may be, you need to wake up the next morning, come to the ballpark and it really is squash and it's over and you're moving on. So the real positive teams and the successful teams I've been a part of, they were all really policed from the inside. Okay. Moving on to the team. I don't think drive me crazy is the right phrase. I can't figure it out. This Tampa Bay race team year in and year out. I don't know half the players on the team ever, yet they're at the postseason every single year. They're knocking on the door. They were dead and gone, they're up to 500 already. But is this the year where Tampa Bay just doesn't make it? Rob Bradford. I tell you what, Brett, you know, again, we have to say, we want to say this every year and then we're always made to look the fool when if we do say it because they find a way. Last year was the extreme example when they're starting out like 100 and 0 to begin the year where a lot of people went in that year said, this is a year again. The difference this time around was that you had two key guys missing and I think that hurt them at the end of the year. The wonder Franco thing, listen, whatever happened, it happened to him, but I'm just talking about on the field, that hurt them offensively, defensively, that they could not replace them in that lineup at the end of that year and I think it carried over a little bit. And then McClanahan, like one of the best pictures in the American league, you're without him. So you keep losing guys. And by the way, they left last get last now too and Pepio has been okay, but he was glass now is glass now. So you keep losing these guys is going to catch up to ultimately now I will say this, they have some guys coming back. They have some pictures coming back. They're playing a little bit better as you mentioned. So as we sit here, like I can't count them out. I can't count them out, especially with guys coming back. I can't, but boy in every year, we're like, and this is why every time they come to town, you say, you asked them, Hey, they Kyle Snyder, you know, just between us, like, what's the secret sauce? What's the thing? What's the secret? And what he'll do, like, throw strike one over the plate, throw strike one over the plate. And I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but whatever they do, and it's working and I would not count them out even now. It's impressive. This run they've been on and it's, I think it's a culture. I think when you sign up to be a Tampa Bay Ray, you get to spring training and there's something Kevin Cash has, has got going there. And that's, I don't know any other word to use than culture, but when you walk through the spring training doors for the Rays, the atmosphere is kind of, Hey, we win here and we go to the postseason here. The only thing they haven't done, they haven't finished the deal in one of World Series. But when you have that type of atmosphere, I had it when I went to Atlanta, you know, different circumstances, the Braves were a juggernaut in the nineties. They never lost the division. But I, I remember going in that spring training coming over from the Reds and I was on some good Reds teams, but the atmosphere was no, no, it's, it's not a matter if we're going to the postseason. It's whether we're going to win the World Series here, but it wasn't just words. It was a real feeling that you had in that clubhouse. I think Tampa Bay has found a way to make that a real thing. And when you go through those doors, it's not the raw, raw answer the reporter's questions that, yeah, we're really, you know, we're really going to have a good year and get to the postseason. It's, no, we're going to the postseason. Is this the year we figure out how to win the World Series and I think it's nothing but a great thing. Yeah. And Brett, you know, in terms of this, if you're focused on the pitching too, well, there's that dynamic, the mentality, which I'll go back to, to Joe Madden when, you know, I, they define this, this James Shields, Coco Chris fight is where ticket on the big boys in American league East next then, you know, you're actually beating the big boys in the American league East and you're going on the run that they haven't really stopped. But the pitching, you had said when you walk in there, you, you have the raised mindset of doing things, Jake Deakman, this was the guy who he was released by the White Sox. Couldn't throw strikes, had great stuff, had bounced around. He lands with Tampa Bay and then all of a sudden, the Tampa Bay wave doing things got him pitching like everybody had hoped that he would pitch and talking to Deakman. He said, he was honest. He said, when you, everyone tells you, this is what you got to do. Throw the ball over the plate for strike one, so forth and so on. But when you hear it from the race, this is his words. When you hear it from the race, it hits different. And I think that's part of what you're talking about. eBay Motors is here for the ride. Remember when you first saw the potential and then through some elbow grease, fresh installs and a whole lot of love, you transformed 100,000 miles and a body full of rust into a drive that's all your own. Look to your left. Look to your right. 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Watch every game every Sunday on NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Sign up now at youtube.com/Sunday Ticket, device and content restriction supply, local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. It's amazing to me. All right, last team, before we get to your Red Sox, to me, one of the more disappointing teams. You know, I've watched this young team grow up together and I thought they were going to be a real force going forward offensively this year. They've done nothing. From a pitching standpoint, they're at the bottom of the American League and all the categories. Defensively, there is mediocre as they come. I looked at this Blue Jays team at the beginning of the season and I saw Gossman. I saw Bassett. I saw Kakuchi, Barrios and thought this is probably the best staff, the best starting rotation in the American League East. They're in the basement. Is there any hope? Given up on this young, you know, with Bassett and Vladie and Springer, they brought in Justin Turner who's had a ton of success in LA. Is this the end of the run? Do they need to scrap this or, I don't know, what you thought on the Blue Jays? For me, very disappointing. Yeah, it is disappointing and I do think it's the end of the run because now you're at the point where you have to make decisions on guys like Justin Turner, on guys like Bassett and Guerrero and you're going to have to start turning over the roster a little bit just because of contract status. And then you have injuries like the Romano injury. It's just that time where I know that there's three months left but for the Blue Jays, it is what it is. This isn't like we talk about the race. You're trending a little bit better and you have the race way of doing things. No, the Blue Jays way of doing things in recent years has been underachieving. But it is disappointing because like you, I thought they were the most talented team in the American League East last year. You can make the argument this year even with Baltimore and the Yankees and I know the reason I know that they were perceived as one of the most talented teams was because the guy that they almost had, the guy that was supposed to be on the jet flying from California to Toronto but wasn't, but still went to Dunedin to actually take a tour of the facility and that's Shohei Itani. I mean, Shohei Itani, I know the money was there but he doesn't go there unless he feels or he doesn't even entertain that unless he feels that this is a good situation going forward. And it's amazing to think about that. It's amazing to think about you lose Otani and this almost like fork in the road. Now we're talking about dealing off these really, really talented players. It's just taking a real turn for the words that I don't, I think it's just not going to change in the next month. Yeah, I think underachieving, I think that's, that's the word I'm going to coin it. I'm going to coin it. I'm taking it Rob Bradford, Brett Boone, underachieving. That's the word for it. All right. Let's get to your Red Sox. I've been keeping an eye on them all year and it's like, man, Red Sox pitch, I got a good bullpen. And offense more than I thought, I know there's a Devers guy there, but who else is there? They're, you know, they're playing, they're stealing bases and they're just hanging around 44 and 39 as we tape this. And I don't know, do they have enough in that division? Give me your take on the ground. It's funny. It's like the 2024 Red Sox colon. I don't know. I mean, that's, there it is, it really is, I mean, it's, it's, it's, before it was maybe question park. I mean, it's, it really, Brett is one of the most baffling teams that I've ever covered certainly and one of the most surprising teams too, because you already came in with low expectations. You didn't do much in the off season. You have the win over under win total was like 78 and a half. And then you have, then you get in the season and Gileto, they're big signing out for the year. Trevor's story. Weaken the season out for the year. You keep having these injuries, Garrett Whitlock, a guy who was supposed to be part of the rotation out for the year. So you have all of these things and you're just filling the gap, Von Grissom, the guy that he's got for Chris Sale, who is supposed to be the everyday second baseman, have barely played. And when he's played, it hasn't been great. Tristan Cassis, the guy, the foundation guy, well, he's been out for a couple of months now. All of it. And as you said, now they're sitting here, game and a half out of the wild card, over 500. And at first, for the first couple of months, it was the starting pitching. It was Andrew Bailey had found the secret sauce, the recipe. And they've gotten Tanner Hauke, cutter Crawford and Nick Pavetta and these guys to be one of the best starting rotations around. And that kept them in it. But now what's happening is that you're seeing a lot of these younger players who are getting a chance. Said Don Rafaela and William Bray, you and David Hamilton, guys that probably are outside of Boston, people barely know. And all of a sudden, they've gotten a chance and they've actually become better. And this is where I'm going to pivot to one of the biggest storylines when it comes to the Red Sox. It's Alex Cora, Alex Cora, and it's coaching staff, Brad, you know, like one of the things about managing, managing in baseball, it's, are you getting the most out of your players? However you're doing, are you getting the most out of your players? And this year, undeniably, Alex Cora, and I'm going to throw his coaching staff in there as well because they're working with these guys every day. They're getting the most out of these players right now. And because of the way they play, like you said, stealing bases, running around, that eliminates some slumps and you have big-eyed divers, castes coming back, they become, you know, they're not going to win the division. But as we've seen in this world of baseball, just get in, get some good starting pitching and you're on your way. Yeah. I look at this division and because of the Red Sox, I put them up there, maybe the best division in all of baseball, with obviously Baltimore and the Yankees sitting at the top. But it certainly makes it interesting and, you know, you touch on the manager thing. And you know, I don't like to get too deep in the weeds on manager, you know, look at the Cubs and counsel and oh, yeah, he just forgot how to manage. That's what it is. Let's be honest. The end of the day, players win games and in the media standpoint, managers lose games. That's just the way it is. But the great managers that I've run into year in and year out and it doesn't matter. If the players don't play, well, I don't care who you are, managing, you're not going to, it's not going to mean a hill of beans. But if you got the horses, the next step to elite managing, I think, is putting those horses in the best frame of mind mentally to go out, take the field every day, put them in the best position possible for them to succeed. And the great ones have the ability to do that. They have the ability to kick me in the butt and maybe to another teammate, give that teammate a hug and correspondence. That puts everybody in the best position to be the best player they can be. It's reading people. It's being that great CEO. It's not, oh, did I bring in the lefty at the right time? Oh, you know, I brought in that righty a little early. Those are exes and those. Computer these days can run that, but it's managing people. And I think we get to it, I laugh because now having a brother doing it, you listen to the fans. Oh, he stinks. He should have brought him. I just sit there and shake my hand like, nobody has a clue. Once that national anthem ends, Rob, I'll tell you what, it's very, very miniscule. The say a manager has in the outcome of that game. And I've talked to a lot of teammates. I said, how many times do we sit around after a game, have a beer and bitch about the manager losing the game for us? Every time it was because we didn't do something to win that game. It had nothing to do with the manager. Once in a while, you'd come in and say, man, skip made a bad move at this part of the game. But it was so a one off and it didn't happen. So no, I agree with you. The great ones, they can have that little impact and it's just putting you the talent in position to succeed. Well, that's why they call it managing, right? Yeah. Because it's almost like the managing of everything outside from 7 to 10 is the more important stuff, it's managing people. Right? Yeah. So all-star, closer, Ken Lee Janssen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? This boy isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game. It's the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago, and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod. There is another fact. So jump aboard the BIB Express. Follow and listen to baseball as I'm boring presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
