Good morning Joe Sports said 5 9 in fan Ben and his Brent gunning we're live from the 29th annual J's care golf tournament in support of the J's care foundation at rattlesnake point golf club bunch of blue J's alumni going to join us later on in the program blue J's with an off day today on a one game winning streak after salvaging a win in the Tigers series. The Tigers series, they get back to work tomorrow where they will host the Texas Rangers, I believe. Yeah, I'm blanking as well. Oh, it's a Tampa Bay race. There you go. Texas on the weekend. They got Tampa for three and Texas for three Tampa also stinks, but Tampa's doing the thing where they stink, but they still somehow win. So that's, that's what's, I mean, no, it's not. It's raised pixie does just a different form and fashion we've seen it before in the fashion of, they're like, oh, let me sprinkle a little bit of this on a guy and he'll come out of nowhere and the spin rate. This is a different one. That's what I mean. It's just, hey, man, like you think a witch only has one spell. I would imagine they have many like I like I've died of new to throw this. That's true. Like they don't like like on what world is like, Hey, which can you cast a spell? It's like only if you want this because I got no other tricks. They can do a lot. So it's just the rays like different picks. Okay, so the rays are minus 58 in run differential. Okay. They are 50 and 49, by the way, they're a game over 500. They're four and a half games back in the third wild card spot. They want to straight. They're six and four in the last time, but they're minus 58 in run difference. Blue Jays are minus 70. Blue Jays like we can all shake hands and agree their offense is abysmal, right? Blue Jays really bad. Agree. Scoring baseball runs. Yes. Verbal handshake. The Rays have scored fewer. Okay. The Rays have allowed fewer, but only slightly fewer. Rays are above 500. And I guess they're not going to go all in at the deadline, but it's not like the Rays are going to just start selling everything that isn't nailed down. They'll do their Rays thing where like they make the best trade in the world. Oh, I was going to go out and you're like, Oh, you're trading that guy. And then they'll somehow be better. And they'll have the next great superstar. Right? But yeah, the Rays stink. Okay. The Rays in God, what did I, I forgot the stat that I made up. Okay. The one, the home run rankings. Big fly factor. Where would you be without me? I am so mad that I remember that. Yeah. Good job. I haven't talked to you in a hundred years and I still have that burned in my brain. I don't have the updated stats, but like the Rays were one of the few teams that were actually behind the Blue Jays at that point in hitting home runs and allowing them. They're going to be a chat GPT to like cook up an AI bot to just do that every day for you. That sounds like something that might be possible, but that is. I mean, I just use a lot of tech jargon. I don't think I need to say chat GPT and AI chat bot. No, they're going to seem a little redundant. Yeah. And his Rays stink, but are good. Okay. Okay. So go figure. Anyways, I guess it's kind of the problem with looking at all of the like you're looking at the schedule. Yeah. Be might as well just pull up the standings because it's like you just look above the Blue Jays and it's like, it's going to be better, but they still stink too. And it's very informative of exactly kind of where you're at one yesterday, though. So that's good. Yeah. The Blue Jays did. Yes. Yeah. Avoiding sweep of the hands of the Detroit Tigers were in a similar position of the Rays, although below 500. Anyways, so the focus this Blue Jays season will come down to one date on the calendar. It's July 30th. It is the trade deadline. I thought there was like a country day at the park or something. Yeah, probably is probably is a Harry Potter day upcoming. I heard Dan Shulman mentioning that. Good luck. Everyone there. But no, it will come down to the trade deadline as the Blue Jays sell off their pending free agents. And that's all. Apparently again, this is reiterated by just about anybody that's writing about them. This is part of USA Today's Bob Nightingale's most recent. The Toronto Blue Jays baseball's most underachieving team will do plenty of selling at the deadline before they do some fire. In the off season, they're expected to trade pitcher. You say Kikuchi center fielder Kevin Kirmer. Catcher Danny Janssen and D.H. Justin Turner and could entertain offers for Chris Bassett and Kevin Gossman. But are they willing to go all of the way in trade? Guerrero, Jr. and Boba Chateau. Highly unlikely. Okay. So that seems pretty noncommittal on the pitchers with years of control and Bassett and Gossman. And Gossman, if in fact this Blue Jays team is pivoting to 2015 or 2025, then yeah, you'd probably want those dudes around. But I think everybody is of the same opinion to go evaluating this front office. I was going to say the good thing with Bassett and Gossman is if they do go back to 2015, those guys are old enough that they could maybe help that year too. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, those depending for agents are going to be out the door and nothing more. It does feel like is the situation at hand when it comes to the July 30th trade deadline, which is fine. When you're not making a playoffs, there is no sense to be made unless you really think it's going to aid your chances in retaining those players and free agency where like if you, you can squint and see it with Danny Janssen. Despite the fact that he's 30 years old and always injured, but it's like, who's your option behind him? We talk about somebody has to pitch innings for this team. Someone has to catch, right? It shouldn't be Alejandro Kirk every day, but also can't be Alejandro Kirk every single day. The Bassett and Gossman I think is very informative of how they see the off season going. And they have to be thinking about that already. There's no world where you can be like, of course, deal with the challenges of the day and try to win every game and yada yada. That's nice. That's for John Schneider and that's for the players. But from a front office standpoint, if those guys, and I'm not saying you'd give them away for nothing. I'm not saying you should be eating tons of money to get off of those players. Of course not. But I also would think that to kind of answering different questions, Bassett is more the eating, eating guy, whereas Gossman you could probably squint and see maybe the higher ceiling potentially if you're the team acquiring them. But if you were moving on from those guys, it is proof positive that you see this not being a quick turnaround. Unless you think you can go out and get players of that ill-confree agency, but good luck doing that without spending a ton of cash to do it. And God knows you haven't been able to develop starters that can backfill your rotation. That has not happened. Anyways, so that's that's all kind of old news at the top part of that thing. And yeah, he did mention explicitly the firing that's going to take place in the off season of the guy that's going to make the deals. Okay. Quickly on that. Can you like we've seen lame dot coaches before, like this guy's done when the year's over. We might be seeing it right now with this very team. I cannot for the life of me remember like a death march for an executive in this way. I guess I tend to think that that's going to be the move, but I kind of thought that would be the move last off season. And we didn't see it. I still think a big part of it was the and I don't think they made it out of spite. You're like, you're not going to tell me what to do. But I do think there was an element of I'm not firing this guy because you tell me to. Well, but I mean, if that's your move, what changed this year? Well, it got worse. Quite frankly, I guess. It was pretty bad, man. Like, you know, look, I remember. I remember you. You actually like got angry on the show. That's how I know how bad it was. OK, and don't know it at me. That's something that happened in the world of sport. But I think that how can you not look at it at last year? Like again, it went abysmally. We had the burrios and the cocochi and the flag getting picked off and don't want run being sport. But that's still better than this. Yeah, I mean, but then the guy that we're talking about Ross Atkins came out and said, yeah, it was the manager made the decision all on his own. I remember what he gets to do it all. He's he's directly under the bus. Direct all your questions to John Schneider was hard. Well, it's hard to ask somebody a question when a bus is parked. Yeah. Anyways, really dig the boom mic in there. I don't. It'll be interesting to see exactly what the messaging is at the end of the season. Anyways, so all that's fine as well. Quite honestly, like you think sure like bigger conversation, but honestly, like you think we're having these questions now. You think that's not going to be one of the first things asked at the. Sure. Most deadline presser. Yeah. And maybe at that point when the draft is in your rear view mirror and the heavy lifting of the deadline is in your rear view mirror that you can actually at that point get ahead of things and fire a general manager. I don't know. Be also weird to like have him do the job and then the next day or a week later be fired. I don't know. I will. I will. I will. I will throw the caveat in that it is a very different conversation. And if the shed or glad you're not in this good transition into what we're trying to talk about here. But if one of those guys isn't moved, then I think there is a massive difference between going through the. The deadline where you're talking about kakuchi or maybe Janssen, then one of those guys like those are obviously much different organizational questions. He's trading you say kakuchi, Jimmy Garcia, Danny Janssen, Kevin Kirmer, who's already been waived, exposed to waivers is not like the transformational like I don't think you should be too upset if like the general managers who's about to be fired makes those moves because I think that's you're looking at guys that are not at the top end of whatever team you're trading with prospect rankings and as I hold their stuff and maybe beyond what even the general managers like purview is like those are depth minorly guys who the general manager probably doesn't agree. But that is actually a very good thing to mention on a cash, especially especially with this sport, right? Like a hockey, you know, guys playing in the American League pretty easy for the GM to like zip down and not that GM can go watch somebody, but you go watch a guy play one baseball against what's that going to tell you. Yeah, we're talking about. Yeah, guys that the like in the 20s and totally totally totally. So you're probably deferring to your scouts in that regard. Anyways, the real nugget at Bob Nightingale's latest. The latest if you will. Yeah, and he does this on occasion. He buries big pieces of information. And this is apparently wants to make sure you read. He's not the click, but he wants you to scroll all the way down. I guess he gets bonus money for the scroll. Yeah, this is sourced. So quote. Radio metrics you want him long time, not just a short time. Okay. If you say so. Toronto Bluejay shortstop Bobus yet has told friends that he would welcome a trade. Oh, well, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. badly wants to stay in Toronto and is open to signing a long term extension. Okay, the second part. We've heard explicitly from the player. He's been pretty consistent. Yes. Not once is he wavered. Well, there was the one like the Spanish media interview where he said, yeah, I guess like I say things about the Yankees and like I guess I'll play wherever I'm asked to play. But I'm not. Like you said, I want to sign. I will go. I don't think it's not like he's like taking out ads in the paper to say I want to stay in Toronto. But it does feel like since that has happened, we've heard this now three or four times like it almost it almost to me at least appears as though his camp or him or whatever. Realized that even that little sintilla of like, well, the Yankees like never say never. It's like, no, that's not what people want to hear. They want to hear this. And I think it's because that's what he wants that he's saying. And it's a big departure from what we've heard from Bobus yet, which isn't a ton. But we've heard the limited we've heard from him. Hazel May. Hey, would you be surprised if you're traded? No. Hey, Bob Nightingale sourcing. Bobus yet has told friends he would welcome a trade. All right. Let's let's play amateur psychologist here and just analyze. Why he would want to trade. Do you think it's because the Blue Jays stink right now and he'd rather play for a team that's good right now? Or do you think it goes beyond that? I think that is the first part of it. But I also think that the shed is a pretty pragmatic guy and wouldn't just be. I mean, for lack of a better term, whining that the team was bad and wanting out. I don't think he looks that way. I think that is probably what predicates those feelings. And, you know, that's probably where the conversation stemmed with his buddies. Like, you know, like we all talked to our, like, not a ton. But, you know, hey, how's work? How's that going? And, you know, one of Beshette's buddies says that to me goes, yeah, honestly, you know, I wouldn't mind to trade. Like, it's going a little, it's going a little sideways here. But I also look at it as a symptom of the bigger picture that things have been building not in an upward trajectory with the way you want this team to go. You would have seen the, OK, you make the playoffs. You have a tough loss. OK, you have one more tough loss, but that's OK. You can take the step back next year, and then it's been a complete step back. It's been a complete regression for sure for him, but just about everybody else on the roster as well. And I'm sure it is a bit of a player questioning the plan. One other thing that I think has to go into this as well is if both these guys were ticketed for Cooperstown, 1,000% lock of locks, I think the money's there to sign them both. Like this organization has proven they will spend even on a putrid ball team, which is what they have this year that they will still spend on it. But I also think he understands saying short of us both being that maybe it's a little harder to commit to two guys at the exact same time for the amount we're going to be worth. And it's just him kind of seeing a little bit of the writing on the wall. I don't think it is one hard and fast thing. I don't think this year took a turn and Bishetskin kept me out of here. I think it's all of those factors kind of playing into one another. So firstly, there's just no chance he's going to be traded by July 30th, considering the extent of the injury that he suffered multiple weeks with the calf strain and him performing like he didn't have the turnaround that George Springer had. Now he's the worst hitter on this team and one of the worst hitters in all the baseball. Okay, so there will be no time for him to prove that he's anything other than that. And I know there are also reports that other teams still view him as the guy that he was to start the year or the conclusion of last year as opposed to the guy that's one of the worst hitters in all the baseball. Regardless, teams aren't trading for it. They can think that and they wouldn't even be on wise too. They're not trading for him at that value though. Well, apparently there are reports that Jim Bowden in his latest on the athletic did mention the team still value him that way. I'm sure they value him that way, but this is all the posturing of a deadline. Maybe by the time the deadline rolls around, if there are two or three of these teams, maybe, maybe, maybe. But I just think that's the other part of it is a team can value him that way, but also say, "Alright, let's do this in the off season. We're not trying to piece together a playoff roster at the moment." It is an Miami trade. No, nothing would shock me more than a Bobishette trade before July 30th. I shouldn't say nothing. I was going to say. But that would be shocking. So unlike Bobishette, I would be surprised if he was traded. And maybe Bow would now be surprised considering the injury in the season he's had if he would be traded by July 30th. And I understand a guy at his age in his competitive window not wanting to be on a team that stinks and frankly this team stinks. Would Stink less if he was not so stank? Well, he's part of the stankitude. Yeah, perhaps the smellyest one. Yeah. I mean, he's got the most stank on him. So I get that part. Is anything beyond that though? I don't get it because this team has given him everything. He's wanted. They fired the guy. He wanted fired in charge of one toy. How dare you infer that from those very pointed. I mean, he was the media. Nobody. I get I've never I said it at the time. And it there's been other firings and other sports since. And I've never seen comments quite well ones that came from Bobishette after that fire. He's like, yeah, kind of made sense. We needed a change in here. They never moved him off shortstop despite multiple points in his career where they could have. It would have made sense. They had a better defender at that position. They didn't let him go to arbitration when they let Vladimir Guerrero Jr. go to arbitration. They gave him his three year deal, which is like maybe the only time in his tenure as a Bluejay where he was smiling in a media availability. So he's locked up. He has cost certainty and sort of the Blue Jays, but they they were so afraid of going to arbitration with this guy. They gave him the three year deal. They got more serious when he was captain serious. That's true. I don't think he asked them to get rid of. Lourdes Guryo Jr. and Tay Oscar Hernandez, but certainly that that seems to be his MO being the serious dude and having a serious clubhouse. They spent money around him. They tried to win. And secondarily to that, I mean, to the money and the seriousness, there was one guy last off season that he talked about wishing he could be teammates with. This is Justin Turner. They got Justin Turner. Like what else does this guy want? If it's anything beyond this team stinks and I'd like to be on a good team, which I get. I think that if it's if it's anything beyond that, then I haven't gotten everything I've asked for, including being drafted by this team in the second round. Like this was the team. He was not a slam dunk. Yep. Obvious choice with his offensive profile and his swing to to bank on that dude and call him up pretty close to the same time. They called up Vladimir Guryo Jr. slightly afterwards, but like it's I guess you can argue that they didn't call him up at the exact moment that would have been. Sure. Preferable by him, but like take a number. Yeah. Exactly. Right. But I can't if he feels hard done by in any way by this this team that that is a mind bender. I don't think it's a hard done by thing, but I think it's when everything's going well and the team's winning. This isn't something we talk about, but when things go with skew, this continues to be an issue. And maybe this is something that we make more of an issue then, but it's part of the problem when the two guys who your team is supposed to be built around clearly look at things just like life in divergent ways like happy and sunny. Dower and serious, and I think that part of it is that when Bo was the guy hitting and we were having all these questions about Vlad, it wasn't Vlad. He wants out, but it was, yeah, what's the future look like? How hard of an extension is that going to be? What's the number going to whereas it's like, hey, Bo is going to be here. Obviously this is his team. And I just think it is a guy who the two of them, I think often it goes to like their, you know, mortal enemies and they're like pulling at opposite sides of the rope. I just think they look at life in different ways. And I think part of it is that Vlad has rightfully so come to the forefront back as the face of this team and the leader. And I think that it is something where Wombashette just doesn't feel like a part of it. And he's been on the IL. He hasn't played. I think that that's all that all kind of feeds into it for me. I don't know. I don't like that is the most making too much out of something, but I also don't know that it's nothing. They're not a little different in the way they go about it. Literally opposite sides of the dugout at times. And again, not in that they're feuding with each other. But it's just like you had Beshette and Chapman doing bicep curls and looking at the tablet. And then you had Lord us making fruit cocktails down at the other end. And like there's room in life and on a baseball team for both. There is. I just think it's tough when it's the two guys at the center that are so divergent. That's not to say it can't work. But I think when it really illuminates itself, when they're both going, it doesn't even matter. But when one guy is going and one guy is not, that's when it just seems to be at the forefront the most for me. Loyalty works both ways. And in pro sports, we whine about how players are on loyal. And then their teams trade them away. We're going to trade them poorly. And this is not a normal job. These are players with very finite careers. And if you don't perform like even more finite, then you realize. But I would like to think, and I think if you asked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. honestly, it must be part of the comments that are coming from him and his genuine desire to remain a Bluejay. Part of that is he feels loyal to the Blue Jays because they've given him the things that he's wanted. They've put him in positions to succeed. They've allowed his personal hitting coaches to be with this team. They've put Edwin Encarnacion in the dugout for games. They've given him what he wanted, which is maybe not dissimilar to other teams. But the idea that for some reason, Bulbashep might not feel that way again. I'm putting words into his mouth or thoughts into his brain that may not exist. It's hard not to infer that considering the body language and the public comments and everything we've heard. Maybe this is just a guy that throughout his career is just never going to be happy. I think you nailed it. This is a guy who has, there's exactly one good day. And it's when he wakes up and his slash line is exactly what he expects to be and the team is in a place. Well, then is he kind of toxic then? Is he toxic? I don't, I don't think we can, now I will admit that baseball is a completely different sport in this and that you have to do it every day. But I would never sit here and say you don't want to have a guy that's built like that. I don't think you can have a team of 26 guys that are ready to rip each other's throats out at one, you know, pass ball or something like that. But you absolutely want to have that as part of it. You want to have it as part of your leadership group. And I think that the idea that he's sulking or, you know, upset at the way the year's gone, good. You should be. I don't want him smiling. I don't want him saying this is great. I love it here. I want him to be a little aggrieved by this. And I also think that to your point about what the team has done, the biggest one where I think he should feel a touch of loyalty or whatever is the shortstop thing. There were plenty of times where you could have easily moved him off there. And quite frankly, that changes the trajectory of his career. It changes the number that's going to be on his contract when he rings the bell, whatever it looks like. They got Marcus Semian, who was an established shortstop. No, that's what I mean. That is the one point where I think you say, wow, this team really did kind of bend over backwards. Everything else. I mean, I don't think they signed Justin Turner because Boba Show walked in there and said, you get me that guy. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty interesting, though, that he mentioned one guy with Blair and Barker. It was Justin Turner and they went out, got Justin Turner. Okay. But I can also, like, can we workshop that the other way? Yeah. He's the world's greatest actor and he's like, oh, I don't want him on the team. But I'll go out there and put on a brave face. No, I bet he was talking to the team and they're like, hey, we're thinking about Turner? That's something like that. He'd go, I would love Justin Turner. And then he goes out and says that the team looks smart. It looks like they're giving. Like, I can just as easily see that working the other way. Then I can, then I can them saying, oh, man, he told Jeff Blair, he wants Justin Turner. I better go get him. Yeah, I don't know everything that's happening between the player and the organization. I just know there's like half dozen things that he's, that have gone in his favor that have been enacted by this baseball team that have, again, like been things that he wanted. He wanted. Oh, God. I don't know if he'd necessarily wanted John Schneider to be his next manager, but he was his manager in the minor leagues. He probably didn't want to hit seventh when John Schneider took over. That's a magic spot. They put springer there. That's like literally it's the one time where I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe that's sourdome. But then like he started hitting it. That's the thing. I think he's just, I think he's just super results oriented. I think he cares, obviously, about himself. He cares about his own production, especially given the mass of offseason. It's coming for him, not this one, but the one after when he's going to ring the bell and get his big paycheck. But I think that he would sit there and yeah, guess what? If John Schneider moved him to seventh, then he's scuffled worse or continued to scuffle. Is there a world where he goes, how could you do this to me? Sure. But he moved him to seventh and he started raking. You know what the chef probably says? Yeah. Nice call, Shnides. I bet you that's what he, now if he would have kept him there for 100 years, he probably would have felt stapled way about it. But he didn't. He moved him back up. So I just think it's a guy who is only happy when he's doing great and the team is winning. And it's that neither of those is happening. Guess what? It's a pretty dower. That's tough. But isn't that what you want? Yeah, I suppose. You'd like the team always to be winning. That's not always the case. Yeah. Teams go through extended losing streams even in winning years. Well, the Yankees right now going through a horrible stretch just by being in a playoff class. And this is why despite everything I said about the push and pull of the tenor of the team, depending on which guy's going, I think that's why in a perfect world, having two leaders, one who is always like, Hey, guys, I know it's nineteen to two in the seventh inning, but we can't get to twenty five. We can keep pushing. I'm glad he's going, hey, guys, show it a little. It's a long season. You need many types of personalities and if they can find a way to make that work. And I think part of this is that, yeah, these guys aren't young in terms of players and they're not young in terms of track record. They're still just young men in terms of learning how to, you know, interact and be part of a team. And yes, these guys have been pros forever. And I mean, both of them literally growing up around the game. But I think that is also part of it that just takes time in your life. Like again, like, you know, I'm me and George Springer, both ancient men of thirty four years old. It's like, don't ask me how good a teammate I would have been when I was twenty five if things weren't going well. Not well is the answer. I do want to touch on the Vlad part of this before we take the break. Yeah, he wants to say awesome. He's been consistent in his desire. They should stay. They should give him money. I think we know the baseline of what the player is, which is good. Not place to start. Not great. But good. And in this offensive environment, maybe greater than I even give him credit for. His OBS plus of one thirty five would be his second highest season ever, only behind that twenty twenty one season. The year he's having right now in twenty twenty four. One so it was going to be the big fish to fry this offseason in Major League Baseball and his free agency. I mean, his Vlad's extension and the conversations that exist between him and the team, because unless Boboshette comes back and matches the way, and he salvages the number, it's hard to imagine those two sides coming together on something that makes sense for both of them. But if Vlad finishes the season this way and he's been consistent and the Blue Jays understand they're under the gun, is that the biggest story of this offseason? Vladimir Greer Jr's pending extension. Yeah, it's not even close. And I think the thing that's going to make it relatively easy for them is I would expect Soto to get done somewhat quickly. Like that feels like, yeah, he's not going to just take the first off or waved in front of him. But I also don't know that it will be the Otani saga of last year. And I think that once you have the Soto number, it just makes everything easier. If you were operating in a world, which we are right now, where there is no number for Soto, Vlad can kind of ask for the moon. Once there's a hard and fast number on Soto, that obviously I would think puts a cap on what Vlad can ask for. And it ain't the same thing. You're just going to, so I think the Jays are wise to wait for that number to come. Well, yeah, and Vlad is wise to wait as well. I think the other thing about the Vlad potential extension is he's one guy. His team needs a lot more than one guy. So many more. To do what I got, George Springer, Tuesday. Okay. They need to rebuild this offense. They're not good enough offense. Pretty clearly. And next year, considering the guys that are under control in the areas that they can improve, it's hard to imagine them getting significantly better. And maybe like an actual more legitimate tear down happening after next season. Vlad's 25. Yeah. Like if that is happening around him, it's not the worst thing in the world to have a guy who, you know, into his late twenties. How long do you want this rebuild to last? Hopefully not as long as the Tigers won. Clearly I was going. Yeah. So what? He's the rebuild and the retool. And especially considering the resources, you're probably going to throw into that thing. So what? He's 28, 29 in the middle of his decade long extension. Now this is something that has to take place unless the number he's asked for is like in Soto land, which you can't. It just factually cannot be. You know what you tell him to do? You tell him to go get it. Right Frank, but you tell Vlad, we love you. You know what? You go find one other sentient being that's going to pay you that and we'll come as close as we can to matching. Like that's the way that would have to happen. And I think that if you take the player in his word and why wouldn't we, that he wants to be here, it's not going to come to that quite frankly. I don't think so either. Hey, let's do the waking right now. Time now for the waking right presented by Sports Interaction. Your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. Let's look at some baseball futures. World series outright winner. Dodgers, the favorites of plus 333 Philly second favorite plus 425 Yankees plus 600. Orioles plus 700 Braves plus 900 Astros plus 1400. Anyone stand out to you there, Brad? I think you got to go with some value and it just doesn't exist until you got to like Astros Guardians land for me. This is a this is a time where you. You think one of those teams is going to make a splash. You think, OK, this is the time the Guardians go out and get their sexy toy or this is the time the Astros go out and do it. If you want some value, it's got to be one of those teams. I mean, if you just wanted to ask me who's going to win the World Series, I think it's probably going to be the Yankees plus 600 quite quite honestly. Really? Yeah, I do. The Dodgers are just chokers. I just I'm sorry. I feel like I've seen that movie way too many times and I don't know. Maybe Shohei is magic and he can paper over all the yields there. But yeah, I like the value of like Astros or Guardians at 14 or 1600. I think the Orioles are and this is an interesting time to be looking at these odds because things are going to change by the July 30th deadline. I think the Orioles are finally in a spot where it's like, OK, not just incremental ads. It's like, yeah, and we want this to be in a sustainable winter, but we also understand its pro sports and things change pretty quickly. One year to the next, I asked the 20, 21, 22, 23 Toronto Blue Jays, how quickly you can fade out of you. I think the Orioles have a big move ahead of them and obviously have the resources in the minor leagues and prospects to go under and acquire. Yeah, so I like the Orioles at plus 700 regular season home run leader odds. Aaron Judge, he's got 35 this season. He said minus 400. Shohei Otani though, hit his 30th yesterday plus seven. That should account for two. I mean, he's Aaron Judge. And I guess both guys have injury histories. But I mean, I would take the guy who's spending all his time at DH in Otani at plus 700. That's where the value is. I think Judge is most likely to be your home run leader, but he's also, it also terrifies me that he's going to miss three weeks at some point in time. And that could easily be enough. So yeah, the value is absolutely at Otani for sure. That was the Wakenwright presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, we'll talk to Robert Witchill, executive director of Jay's Care as we are at the 29th annual Jay's Care Golf Tournament in support of the Jay's Care Foundation at Rattlesnake Point Golf Club. It's the Fan Morning Show, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the Fan. Covering the blue Jay's 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. Fan Morning Show, Sportsnet 590, the Fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, we are live at the 29th annual Jay's Care Golf Tournament in support of the Jay's Care Foundation at beautiful Rattlesnake Point Golf Club. No rain today, which is good news for our next guest, Robert Witchill, executive director of Jay's Care. Thanks for doing this, Robert. Yeah, you got perfect weather today. It's fantastic, and as always, thank you very much for being here, Sportsnet's huge, huge supporter of Jay's Care. I think more than many people at Sportsnet understand the power of sport to change kids' lives and people's lives in general, and it's great to have you. Yeah, it's great to be here. I'd love to be out on the golf course, and maybe I'll get a chance. I got the sticks in my car as besides the point. But yeah, this event, we're talking 29 years of this event. How important is this particular event? It's like the tent pole event of the year for Jay's Care. Yeah, it's one of our signature events, and we'll fill two golf courses, eight golfers per whole. That's 288 if my math serves me correctly. Don't look at me in that direction. And so anyway, it's really important because last year we reached over 59,000 kids in regular activity and supported a lot of infrastructure projects across the country. And this is vitally important to raise funds for that important work. So yeah, let's just start there, though, the work in and of itself. You know, people here, Jay's Care, and I think people understand like, okay, it's a charity involved with the team, but I don't know quite that they realize how many different kind of tentacles are of the organization and what you do. Kids just talking about a couple of the kind of bigger projects or what you guys are proud of that you're able to do. Wow. There's a lot that we do. A lot of people don't understand, to your point, the reach that Jay's Care has. So we're not like a normal professional sports team foundation where we're cutting big sort of cardboard checks to different organization, which is great. But we actually insource the change that we want to see made. And so the Blue Jays organization is incredibly proud to be the Canadian team in MLB and wants to have an impact across the country. And so we have 40 staff who are working full time designing programs, delivering programs for kids. So in Toronto, we have programs that we're running right now in 14 schools. We've got 1,000 kids plus in those programs. And it's a partnership with the Toronto District School Board. And it's in some of the most under resourced areas of the city. And it's complementary to summer school for elementary school kids, which is just a morning school program. But we were approached last year and they said, hey, a lot of the kids really need to come to summer school. Actually, their parents can't figure out logistics for what they do afternoon. And so we provide some meals. We provide a full program afterwards. And then the parents can know that their kids are safe for the whole day and they're learning and having a lot of fun. And so that's one program. And so we're delivering programs ourselves. And then we design programs with partners and we work with them to figure out what are the challenges that the kids they're working with are facing. And how can we use baseball and the Blue Jays brand, which is really exciting for kids. It's not like, hey, come out to this mental health program. It's come out and play baseball. And if it's intentionally designed, you can actually have huge impacts on kids with those programs. What I've been impressed with as well is the buy-in you get from active players. I mean, Chris Bassett, I mean, he has an initiative. I know Jose Barrios also with a separate initiative. I mean, these guys are not forced into doing these things, but can you talk about the buy-in that you've gotten from active Blue Jays players? I think, you know, it's really remarkable that the players do step up like that. You know, a lot of the players have kids and they understand the importance of play and the importance of having a safe environment for their kids to learn. And they love their kids very much. And so, you know, when we talk to them at spring training, we get the opportunity to present our work. And Chris and Jose and others, you know, line up afterwards and have a conversation with us and say, hey, how can we help? Yeah, the things you're able to do as well for, you know, I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but the adaptive baseball. Essentially, you know, my kids, they play soccer on Saturday mornings and there's an adaptive baseball program going on just at one of the diamonds right by there. And honestly, it's something I wouldn't have thought of. Of course, it's for them and they got a ton out of it. But even me with my kid, it's like that opens a conversation to like, oh, why is this person in a wheelchair? Why do they like it is it is remarkable how just having a program like that in a community can kind of lead to change. So yeah, just, I mean, we sit here and talk about the programs in schools, but I know that's that's something that even again, in my own life, I've kind of seen it take take hold in the community. Yeah, that's a great program. It's called Challenger Baseball. We run that in conjunction with baseball, Canada, Little League, Canada. That was a program that we approached them years ago and said, Hey, you know, this has been run by volunteers. We're the Blue Jays. We want to make a good help. How can we help? And we essentially took over management of that program. We have a number of full time staff just focused on that program and it's for kids with disabilities and a number of years ago, the Globe and Mail published a study and they asked kids living with disabilities, how many friends do you have? And over 80%, I believe the number was said zero or one friend. And if you think about sports and schools, yeah, they're not being selected for teams and they're being left on the sidelines. And so this adaptive baseball program, it's exactly that. Baseball is adapted to their level of skills and instead of them having to adapt to the game. And so that's an incredible program. There are over a hundred volunteer leagues, probably like one that you see on a weekly basis. And they're all run by volunteers. We provide funding. We provide training for people. You don't need to be a baseball coach or something to do this. You just have to love kids and want to make opportunity for kids. And this program, beyond giving kids sort of the opportunity to learn important life skills like independence and confidence, it's also creating a social circle for those kids. And so I had one parent come up and tell me she was in tears. She said my son's 12 years old and he just got invited to his first birthday party at 12 years old. They're creating community for the kids and for the parents who, you know, raising a child with a disability is really tough. And you don't always know where to turn. And so we're creating this community. It's something we didn't think of when we were starting the program where parents are talking to one of the heavy tried this. Have you gone here? You should go here. Hey, there's a basketball program. You should send your kid there. So people can donate at jayscare.com/donate. They can also take part in the mid season auction. Jayscare.com/oction. One of the things you can bid on is trip to Chicago to see the blue jays at Wrigley Field. I've done a pretty good job of seeing some ballparks. I went to Old Yankee Stadium, been to Fenway, done all the Texas ballparks. I was just up to the new Rangers one because they decided to change ballparks after like 15 years in the old one. That was by the way, the hottest place on planet earth was in the old Texas ballpark in like August. It was insane. It was a night game. And it was just, anyways, size point. I've done all the California ballparks except for the big A. I've never been to Wrigley though. Well, I think you were going to say like, you know, cool Chicago day after that. It's like perfect season. Windy day. Yeah, I've never been to Chicago full stop outside of the airport there briefly. But that's one of the great things that you can bid on in this auction. Chicago's actually, I lived in the States for a number of years. Chicago's one of my favorite cities. And Wrigley is one of my favorite ballparks. It's a gorgeous ballpark. It's a fun, fun auction. There are tons of things. That trip would be a bucket list trip for a lot of people. You get to throw another item is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a J's game, which would be pretty cool. I've never had the opportunity to do that. I don't expect I will, but that sounds like a good way to weave in asking to do it right here on the show. Did I just do that? I don't know, maybe. But another very cool thing is a meet and greet with Carlos Delgado. He is, you know, one of the greats, all time greats in the blue J's. And just a great gentleman. And that's a pretty cool prize as well. The auction, how long does it, does it run until I understand some mid-season auction, but how long do people have if they're interested in those prizes? Until Sunday the 28th, you can bid. Thank you for that question. And it's at jayscare.com/ auction. Some pretty cool items and some buy it now, now items as well. Okay. Before we let you go, I want to talk about what we were talking about off air. I walked in halfway to an incredible story. So yeah, I'd like to talk about it. So I just got back from vacation. I was at a cottage, which was near Minden as in the woods, kind of. There were trees there. Is that a cottage? There was air conditioning. You just got back from the Yukon and a canoe trip in the Yukon. Tell me about that, Robert. You're a man's man, Robert. Good job. Well, I appreciate that coming from you, gentlemen. That's a big compliment. It was five days of the Yukon River. I've actually been up the Yukon with Jayscare and fell in love with the place. We work with softball Yukon up there and funded a field at Kwanlandun First Nation just outside of Whitehorse. And had done some other work there. And it was great. And we had a bunch of alumni up there one time as well. So fell in love and got an invite to do this canoe trip with Seven My Bodies. That's awesome. And it was pretty epic. It had a full day of rain and blowing wind. You got the experience. Shivering, few fingers. Yeah. Was there a moment where you're like, "Hey, maybe I should have taken a real vacation." No, no. It was epic. It's a gorgeous river and fast flowing. And lots of wildlife, bears and eagles and goat mountain goats. And it was fantastic. And I think the bad weather that we encountered made it kind of like went from a cool trip to an adventure. It is funny how that works out that in the midst of it, I'm sure you don't have to be honest with us now. But I know in the midst of it, you had one second, at least where you're like, "This is not the best." But that's the story you end up telling. But we've all been there. It's like the story from your travel that you end up telling the most is like, "Oh, here's my travel trip from, you know what." So it's just funny how that ends up working. Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, bring it back to Jay's Care. I think, you know, every athlete has had a moment where they have struggled, right? And I think that builds resiliency. And we always say there's no better way to build resiliency than through the game of baseball, right? If you fail 70% of the time over a long career. Look at George Springer. He was one of the worst hitters in baseball. All of a sudden, his back to being one of the best the last month or so. So I'm sorry, yeah. Yeah, it's ridiculous. So what kind of golfer are you going to be out there today? You got out there swinging the sticks. I love golf. I'm pretty bad at it, but I'll do my best, right? Adversity. I'll try and power through. I don't know how my shoulder is doing after paddling it. That's right. Good. Great groundwork. You're on fire today. I love this team. You know, I don't see any bug bites on you, though. How are the bugs in the Yukon? Because I got back. There's one thing about cottage life. I was just covered in bug bites all over the place. It was a big concern among the cohort, but I didn't even pull out the spray. Good for you. I would have been living in a mesh gilly suit or something. I know it was amazing. There's like zero bugs, relatively speaking. It's a great event today. It's a great organization. You can donate again at jayscare.com/donate or you can head to the auction site, jayscare.com/oction. Robert Whitchel, executive director of Jayscare. Thanks so much for doing this, Robert. Pleasure and thanks again for coming in. Thanks, Robert. All right. More of the fan morning show, Ben and his friend Gunning live from the 29th annual Jayscare Golf Tournament on Sportsnet 590, the fan. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (dramatic music)
