[MUSIC] >> What better place to be reunited than at a golf course? It's a fan morning show, sports net 590, the fan, Ben Ennis. And Brent Gunning, for the first time in a hundred years, were the 29th annual Jay's Care Golf Tournament in support of the Jay's Care Foundation at Rattlesnake Point Golf Club. How's it going, buddy? It's been a while. >> It's good, it's been so long, I immediately started talking to you about golf. So we picked up exactly where we left off. But yeah, I won't go as far as to say I miss you, but it's nice to see you. >> You can say that. >> I could. If you weren't a jerk, you wouldn't want to say it. >> You want to say it? >> I missed you. >> Oh, there you go, now we have that as a drop. Because we have, I love you, Ben, into the roll the next. >> Right. >> Now we have that one. Say it, man, save that, please. >> Yeah. >> Good to see you, buddy. >> Good to see you as well, man. We're not quite in the dog days of summer when it comes to sports. We got the opening ceremonies of the Olympics happening on Friday as well. Blue Jays trudging towards the trade deadline at the end of the month. And we just wrapped up the final golf major of the year, which we'll get to in just a second. But yeah, as mentioned, we're at the Rattlesnake Point Golf Club for the 29th annual Jay's Care Golf Tournament. A bunch of Jay's alumni going to join us today. It's going to be easier to talk to them about this baseball team after a win. Like it's obviously very, it's been a rough season, you may have noticed. >> I have heard. >> Yeah. It's tough to be too critical of a team in front of people who work for the team. A little better coming off at least a salvage of the final game of that three game series against the Tigers team that honestly, I was thinking about this before we came on today. Tigers are better than the Blue Jays. And that was a big series victory for them. It would have been a bigger suite. >> That just in and of itself is quite a thing to save. Tigers, better than the Blue Jays. >> Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Blue Jays. >> Go back in a tie machine a year and a half ago and tell yourself that. >> Well, I mean, statistics. >> No, no, you're not. You're not wrong. >> Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. >> I mean, if you go by run differential, Blue Jays with the same minus 70 run differential as the Oakland A. >> So, you can make the argument that those are comparable baseballs. >> Jay Stadium. >> Nice, sir. >> Yeah, that's true. >> Yeah, having not stepped foot in Oakland, just like flat out. >> I have been there. I enjoyed my time there, but I didn't have to wade through fecal matter. >> I was going to say, was it flooding with poop? >> No, it wasn't. >> Hey, the Oakland A stadium in the City of Toronto last week, same thing, listen to that. >> You know what, I managed to avoid that. >> You did, lucky you. >> Yeah, it wasn't raining nearly as much in Minden. >> We're fine though, like in Burlington. It seemed like, not to say there weren't people but like, there were some issues. >> There was some flooding. >> There was. >> Not in my house either, I had my neighbor go check out the house, said. >> Good for you. >> Give me the thumbs up. But I saw the, I haven't seen the valley holes recently in Glen Abbey, though, but my dad lives right next to Glen Abbey, and he showed me some of the pictures. >> The pictures are ridiculous. >> Insane. >> I don't know how they possibly get that golf course up and running. Apparently the two weeks is all they need, but. >> Kitty litter, it's a powerful drug, who knew? I think that's how it works, I don't know. >> Yeah, possible. >> I ended the show that day after the rains. I started it with complaining about flooding and just like the classic move of I have no ability to do this and I have no solution, but fix it, do better. And then I ended the show just saying thank you in advance to the supers for all their hard work following it, because man, this guy's been grinding. >> Yeah, a lot of washed out bunkers, I feel like if you, if you sell golf course bunker sand, it was a good week for you. >> Good business to be. >> Anyways, what I was saying previous to that was that the Detroit Tigers are in it. There are six games out of the third wildcard spot in the American League that they have some good young players. And technically they're in a better spot than the Blue Jays, but I must say like Tigers, okay, they're better than the Blue Jays, this is a low bar. >> Mm-hm. >> If I was a Tigers fan, I don't know if I'd be interested in my team pushing anything close to the middle of the table. As in regards to acquiring anything, and in fact, they should, if you were smart about it, go about it the same way that the Blue Jays are and trying to trade away as many pieces as possible. And Jack Flair, we've seen rumors to that nature, yeah, I think it's, if you're going to be optimistic about where the Blue Jays sit right now in the standings, it would be that there's no debate like this, that is, there's not even, and maybe there's not as much of a debate as I think there is in Detroit, because they understand where they are and they're obviously not good enough to do anything, I know, chip in a chair, but they're not winning a World Series and they should be selling off anything that is not part of their future plans. >> Mm-hm. >> But there's at least like another series victory, a little winning streak in there above 500? >> Well, and they have to change your thinking, for the Blue Jays, nothing's going to change their thinking. >> Yeah, and I want to make this about the Jays, but with the Tigers perspective, they're also in that tough spot where, you know, it hasn't been a thousand years of desert, but it's been a long stretch of it. It hasn't been like the Mariners, since the Verlander, you know, heyday, and they're at that tough point where it's so hard to, when you have taken, even if it's a little baby step, it is hard not to admit to yourself that the easy and pragmatic thing, even from a front office standpoint, is to say, all right, let's, let's pivot, let's sell off our pending free agents, let's continue to restock the cupboards, that's the right way to go about it, but it is a little bit of a tougher sell, because there will always be that segment of the fan base that says, okay, but we finally have a chance, I've never seen this, with the Jays, they're coming off plenty of years of having had a chance, they're in the playoffs last couple of years, nearly there in the, the fabled Marcus Simeon season, so why, why, and again, there's no where, there's no way you could squint and look at it other way, but there's no, there's also nothing from the, again, every organization wants to make the playoffs, every organization wants to get in, but this isn't a team that hasn't sniffed in 20 years, this isn't meaningful September baseball, like we were talking about, you know, a decade ago or whatever that was leading into 15 and 16, yeah, I guess it would have been a decade ago, so I think that's the other point, is that the Blue Jays aren't in that spot in their kind of winning window or, or calendar that others teams are in where they need to have the impact or the fans are hungry for the playoffs. Blue Jays fans want the playoffs, but I ain't coming one way or another this season, and even if it was, they're more pragmatic than that to take the half step back. You're right, I don't view the Tigers in that same mold as like that Mariners team that had to make the playoffs, right, to end that drought. But you know, the last time the Tigers were in the playoffs was getting nearly a decade ago. It was exactly a decade ago. 2014, they were smoked in three straight in the ALDS by the Orioles, and they haven't been in the playoffs since they have one winning season in the interim that was in 2016, it has been, so just a fair warning for the people out there that are clamoring for the full teardown, right? I gots a decade of teardown and not sniffing the playoffs from the Detroit Tigers. Yeah, and if you think you've been frustrated with Vlad at times, go talk to somebody in Detroit about Spencer Cole Wilson. Yeah, I mean, and we're talking about not just like, oh, fifth overall pick in the awesome one one one one. Yeah, and for a guy who's supposed, and it's, it's one thing too, when you get like a toolsie player there and you can do the Dalton Varshow effect of like, well, you know, he does, I'm so good in the vert, no, it's supposed to mash. And that's not exactly happening. No, yeah, that is the other. And, you know, that is part of the frustrating nature of baseball is that when you're clamoring for the teardown, it's not Connor Badard sitting there, one, one. It's not Victor Wembanyama. Generally speaking, it's a guy that, you know, even like even Paul Skeens took a minute to get here. It's not the quickest of minutes. No, he didn't. He was drafted last year. He started the All-Star game. Yeah, he did the, no, yeah. But I mean, the Skeens, the, okay, so Skeens is the outlier of outliers there, but that's what I'm getting at is that you have a guy, you go and completely tear down. It is just as likely the great third round selection you make in that draft is what's going to be that turns it around. Then the guy you take one one or whatever it is. Or it's the guy that you signed to the biggest free agent contract in your franchise's history. In George Springer, who started his Blue Jays career very strong. And remember, man, I kept trotting up the numbers when he was in the lineup. The Blue Jays were like the best team in baseball. And when he was out of the lineup, they weren't nearly that. And injuries were the big problem. But every time he stepped onto the field as a member of the Blue Jays early on in his career, he just, he looked like George Springer. Totally. It was one of the worst hitters in all of baseball. Start this season. But now, like contrary to anything I could have predicted, he is one of the best hitters in baseball for like not a small sample of time either. He's been unfreeking real for about a month. Yep. And a couple more home runs yesterday, a three hit game. Now in in in an overall sense, the numbers aren't overwhelming, but like grading on a scale. And again, talking about a guy that you could have reasonably called the worst hitter in baseball for the first couple of months. Totally. It's got an OPS over 700 now. Like what is this recent spread stretch done to your perception of the player now and going forward? I've gone from joking about this to meaning it in earnest. He is the guy that makes me wish the waiver trade deadline was still a thing. This is your classic waiver trade deadline guy. If it's like, there's way too much money on the books, no one wants it. He hasn't had the he hasn't had the track record of success. If he does this for another month, I you can you can see teams talking themselves. And obviously Blue Jays eating a little bit of money in this deal. And it can't happen now. That's no longer a thing. But I was joking about that when he first heated up thinking, well, there's no way this is going to continue for a month, let alone to it's continued for for a month. I think that this is a player that has that ability still within him. The absolute high end of George Springer is not there in terms of ability to do it every single day. But the ability to unlock it for stretches of time. I would have expected this to be a two three week blip. But it's gone on for this long. I think you have to reconsider a little bit of what you're getting in the player. But it also doesn't change anything about the plans, really. I suppose there would have been a world where you tried to move off the money this winter. And I guess this changes your opinion on that. But it's not like you would read up that money to go spend it. You would have been eating a chunk of it. So I think it definitely gives you another kind of piece of the puzzle. But I also don't want to overstate what a hot month means for one player. You know what it means? It means that yeah, when we talk about long sample and things needing to regress. And players eventually playing to their career averages. And this isn't a career average for George Springer. But this is about right now, the same hitter he was for the entire last season. That it that nobody just, you know, if you're a 700 OPS guy, not everybody has like weeks every single week where they're at 700 opiate. I don't got 1.1 hits per game or whatever you have right. And yeah, again, if we're if we're being kind of the Blue Jays, which sure we can, we're at the James Fair golf tournament here, you would defer to them who said, Hey, we believe in the player. And just there's a lot of good things happening underneath the hood that you don't see. And you just watch. Well, okay. It hasn't manifested itself in Justin Turner so much. And I guess Boba shed is not going to get an opportunity to see himself regress back to his averages. But it is happening for George Springer. And just to give people some context. So this is June 25th is the date. I think most people are going by as far as when this turnaround started. So that is that's 21 games. That's 86 played appearances, 77 at bats. George Springer is 29 for 77. That's a 377 batting average with eight home runs. So that's a 435 on base and a 792 slug for an OPS of 1228, which is ridiculous. So he's not that like he's not back to big world series MVP George Springer. But what it does for me. So yeah, you mentioned the possibility of a trade. No, that's not like, no, it it it is not unreasonable to think about that now. Whereas before it was, Hey, just do whatever you can to unburden yourself from as much of this contract as humanly possible. You're not thinking in those tones. In fact, if you are a contender, and you just need like a quick fix, yes, in a corner outfield spot or a or a DH bat, I mean, a guy with postseason bona fives and the Blue Jays are willing to eat some of that contract. You're going from a guy that you're just hoping like you may have to attach an asset to if you want to unload some of that contract to expecting something in return for George Springer all of a sudden. And secondarily, if that doesn't happen, which I think is very reasonable to expect, especially considering all the reporting the Blue Jays are still trying to retool for 2025. Yeah, you're devastated to have George Springer in the lineup next season, right? Like that is that is no longer the huge anchor that you thought it was, where it was like, not only should he not be leading off, like, why why is this guy playing every day? This is a fourth outfielder at best. And yeah, you can't just DFA him or or just cut him from your roster. And you'd call it a sunk cost because there is so much money left there, and he can still play defense. But he can't be playing every day to Oh, okay, at least he's, he's not totally done where it was not unreasonable to expect that. And he turns 36 in September. Yeah, it's 35 because I know because mine in his birthdays, right, we were born like mere days apart. So he should be more of a kindred spirit with me. And that's why I'm always so sad when I do talk about the age of decrepit band that he looked to be and is no longer. I think the thing with, I think the most likely outcome of in terms of how this plays itself out is exactly what you said there, the idea that the J is going the next season. And sure, do they explore everything? Of course they will. How many times are you going to hear that from every team in baseball this off season? But it's with Springer occupying one of those spots. And it's them understanding there are going to be a lot of fixes to have this off season. You know, we'll get into it later on in terms of, you know, who of the guys you've seen here are keepers of Clemente and Horowitz and you know, all the guy that Davis or David Schneider, all the guys poking around of that kind of ilk. But there's going to be a lot of question marks and holes to fill one way or another. And I think just the idea of having one thing off your to-do list. Yeah, and not that this team can't walk and chew gum at the same time, all front offices and all sports have to be able to answer a myriad of questions and deal with different things at different times. But being able to say, all right, corner outfield got that check, Varsho check got the outfield kind of set to a certain extent here. Now we can go about our business the other way. I also think understanding how Springer is going to be a part of the puzzle. And again, like, let's see, let's see the rest, how the rest of the season plays out. But if this should continue or something close to this, then it also lets you understand what you need to do with the rest of the bats that you're going to have in your lineup. If George Springer is going to be a part of this team, he's going to need his DH days. And I don't say that, but grudgingly, again, he's an ancient man who's going to be 35 in September. How could he not need DH days? But they've made the mistake this year of having too many bats that needed DH days. And I think that it just helps to fill out the picture. It doesn't mean that, hey, this is an incredible thing. And George Springer went from the anchor to right back to to the core. No, the answer is still somewhere in the middle. But it just takes one thing off their plate potentially for for this off season. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, it's, listen, I use the to do list app on my iPhone. When I go, there's an actual app, I just use the notes list and you can make a check there and I go, you use the notes instead of the to do list. Is that better than the to do list? Like what I use. Okay. Anyways, I there's nothing more satisfying than getting to press that button. Something disappears. It's great. Whoo doggy. I love it. I was packing from a trip. Also, if you're going through a narrative stretch, like Blue Jays front office is going through, it's nice to not have like the potential worst signing. I like to think the franchise's history also on your shoulder. I like to think of like, you know how like Groundhog Day or like when it is Groundhog Day, you see these pictures of like, there's always guys in like top hats and like, look at the groundhog and they're like holding the groundhog up like the rough of its neck. I pictured them doing that with George Springer. Like, look at what I have brought you. George Springer, remember him? But good. It is a nice thing for them to get to hold up to themselves. Yeah. I don't know if you can keep this up for the rest of the season because if he did, he would be, I mean, he finished the year as an 800 OPS guy and then we're not having any questions about George Springer. That's back to 2022. Yeah. But him being a league average hitter and playing good corner outfield defense and being generally George Springer is a whole lot better than what he was to begin the season. Now you say Kakuchi started the second game in the second half where it was originally he was, it looked like he was going to be bumped up to the first game and maybe you have three starts. Yeah. Before the deadline instead, they moved him back a day so that now his third start aligns with the first day after the deadline, which is, I guess, well, there's two full benefit if, in fact, he pitches well in these two games and the first one middling results. Yeah. And the second one is like, okay, we would love to show you another you say Kakuchi start, but we can't like we're not going to rush him to make a third start for you, but also you can sell the team on you trade for him right away. You get to start him tomorrow at the trade deadline. First start more of a threat than a promise as a couple of years ago, so we'll start him right away. You will hold that piece of red meat up in front of your fans. As as has generally been the case recently, you say Kakuchi looking great early with a bunch of strikeouts since June, though, the ERA is six, one, two. So that's like, as there's only two full months. Yeah. And opponents are hitting 285 with an 829 OPS against him. So yeah, obviously, if you get something for you say Kakuchi, he's going to be out the door before the July 30th trade deadline, but the idea that he's, you know, the most attractive starting pitching option out there, especially if Jack Flaherty is on the move, it's hard to imagine the Blue Jays getting a King's ransom for you, say, Kakuchi. Yeah, it won't be a King's ransom, but I can also and this does precious little to help the Blue Jays, but I could easily see a world where Kakuchi kind of gets his groove back immediately, finding himself in a winning clubhouse where everyone is not counting down the days to the trade deadline and wondering who's going to be in the locker next to them. And they're like, hold on, we get Japanese whiskey. If you win. All right, let's do it. I'm with you. I think that the the how can it not have taken a nose dive? There was easily a world where this was a guy you could sell on having done the turnaround, having been able to fix the problems of a couple of years ago. And it's just been a completely different player now. And I think that it is honestly, I sometimes roll my eyes at the idea of, well, a guy is quit. And I wouldn't, I would not sit here and tell you who she is quit. But I think it's only human nature for everyone in your world. Like his family, his agent, probably the team are telling him, hey, man, just as good a chance you're gone as you're still here. And how can you be as locked in every single day? And it's just again, I don't think it's a conscious thing. I think it's just human nature. We talked about some of the similar stuff and again, like much bigger conversation, but even with both this year, the idea of it just being kind of a a lost season. And then every time you think it's going to maybe take a step, you end up getting hurt and get knocked back down a peg. And I just think that's, that's what you see with Kakuchi here. So yeah, it's brutal for the J's. The return they get is definitely going to be less. But I also don't know that two good starts. Like let's say he was nails against Detroit and nails in his next outing. I don't know that that would have done a ton when you have the recent track record that you've seen either. And there's so many teams that are in this mushy middle, they could be talked into sellers, they could be talked into buyers that a team, if they really want Kakuchi or somebody to fit that profile, there are other options available. So it doesn't have to be him. Yeah, he's he can give you a great start. He can strike some people out. And if you have a quick hook on him, maybe a couple of times through the order, he can he can carve up some of the best lineups like through all of baseball through the fourth inning of a playoff game craft. I know it's the other way. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, there's a reason why the blue J's felt compelled to get him into a playoff game against the Minnesota twins. But where I'm at with him is yeah, obviously again, like you you get whatever you can in return for you say Kakuchi's pending free agent, you're not making playoffs. And even if it's a lottery ticket, that's a lottery ticket you didn't have before. The only one way to win the lottery and that's by buying a ticket. Got you sounded like my wife. He's 33 years old. And yeah, this is his is chance to really cashing, I suppose, who's given you say Kakuchi the five year deal though? What this stretch honestly is done for me. And I guess it depends on what he does in his next landing spot. And then if he gets an opportunity in the postseason, Blue Jays are going to need starters this off say the idea that his price is going to be exorbitant or like again, a five year deal. I think you're looking at another three year deal, which is what the Blue Jays signed up to out of Seattle. I guess more money because he's a more established quality major league starter than he was. Do you think they can see at all though he was an all stars last year as a mariner was going to say do you think they can go to him in the negotiation say we know the first year is going to stink. So if you give us a bit of a break on that one and then we can kind of bump the AV up for the last two years of the deal, just given the way things went the last time around, he's going to be 33 years old like I don't disagree with you that that term is going to be there somebody in baseball is going to do it. But I think the Kakuchi and you're right like you need innings. There is not the depth there at Quad A. It's something we've talked about with this org for I mean, honestly, we've been talking about lack of Quad A pitching since we were talking about meaningful September baseball. That's how long we've been having that conversation. You're going to need the guys but it's just for a team that's going to be in the position this team is in and I suppose there are plenty of different doors they go walk through regarding that question. It's just is that the move you want a stopgap guy who is going to be fine for you and was a declining asset towards the tailing of your time. I think what you don't want is the the guy that's signing that you're you're overextending yourself for for lots of years. And again, I don't think the I think we've learned something about last year's free agent. Yep. Crop is that yeah. Front offices are willing to be dumb with money for the right guy. Juan Soto. Juan Soto is going to get dumb money. It's going to be brilliant though because he's one freaking Soto and he's 25. He's so smart. But he's going to be dumb. Okay. You know what's dumb is handing Cody Bellinger dumb money. You know what's dumb? Handing Matt Chapman dumb money. You know what's dumb? Handing Blake Snell dumb money. You know what would be dumb? Handing Yusei Kakuchi dumb money. I don't think anybody's going to do that. I really don't. I think you're looking at at Max what what he got. Maybe not as far as dollars but as far as term in the three year deal coming out of Seattle again. He was an all star that year. He had a horrible second half but he was an all star and the whole season as a whole. Yeah, that was it was pretty good. It's about what he's done this season. It's just fine. It's unreasonable to think about that being what what he's getting in free agency. I don't think you're wrong. I just think it is. I maybe I shouldn't say just as likely but I really do feel it's just as likely. He goes and has four to five good regular season starts for whatever team he gets traded to and has a good appearance in the postseason where there is a quick hook and then that can change the needle on it. It shouldn't but that that easily can to where I mean you want to talk to a dumb when somebody does literally anything for a team that wins people get really dumb with the money about it generally speaking. Yeah. Yeah. No. And like I would agree. I like winners me personally. Yeah. Yeah. I would say if that doesn't happen and his price is what I think it might be considering what he's produced this season and over the the tenure of as a starters as a Blue Jay then I think he might fall nicely into in the Blue Jays parameters as far as what they're looking for this off season a backfill a rotation spot. I'm not going to help them with Otani though that chip itself. God. Did you see the home running hit? Yes. It was very long. It's 473. Yeah. It was just a moonshot sexy bomb. I can't lie. Yeah. It was the second longest home run ever hit a Dodger Stadium in the Statcast era. Have you seen the John Carlos Santon one that was further? Yeah. That one did actually leave the ballpark to left field still in the overhang. I still maintain like in a world where Aaron Judge exists and I saw that mutiny last night from Shohei Otani when he was Mike Stanton hitting bombs. No one has ever hit bigger home runs like since bash bros like Maguire could say co Sosa Maguire the summer. Well that's it. It looks more powerful like Otani's just like long and graceful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. He would have been. I know it was lovely. He would have been a quality edition of the Blue Jays. Well we just would have been talking about trading with the deadline. Anyways. Jimmy Garcia pitched for the first time in a month dude. He struck out the side. So he's good. So yeah. I don't get it again. Like whatever you get it. No, but do it now. Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned it the conversation we're going to have about the young players because it's already all about the young players now. Yeah. What is going to be really about the young players you see next month running the basis for Jimmy J Saturday. Right. That's the September Blue Jays. Sure. And some of those guys have performed admirably. I threw Ernie Clemente in here as well even though he's not drafted and developed by the Blue Jays. I just thought it was a little bit easier. Quite frankly. But yeah, he's I think we view him because of his recent tenure in Buffalo as part of this this course. Spencer Horwitz. Yeah. We'll talk about him briefly. Spencer Horwitz, David Schneider, Jimenez and Ernie Clemente. Those four dudes are all performing at different rates for the Blue Jays at the current moment. So the Blue Jays are going to have decisions to make. And I guess performance between now and the end of the season will impact who gets the leg up to break camp with this team to have an everyday spot with this team of those four dudes. And I don't consider out of some like Addison Barger. I guess could break in if he if he performs. There's just not been enough traffic. He hasn't done it. Those are those all those guys to various degrees have hit the ground running the major leagues this season. Oh, those four guys who who's in your plans for 2025 first things first Horwitz is the most lock of the bunch for me. This is a guy who has bat to ball skills. He can play, you know, I don't want to overstate it like first and second, but he can give you a little bit of positional versatility gives you an honest A.B. That is the far and away lock of locks. And then, you know, I think with with Schneider, like we've we've we've we've seen it like we understand what he is. I don't know that he is a you give him a position and he is on the team, as you're again, second baseman left field or whatever, wherever spot you want to stick him. But he can be one of the 26 guys on my ball club. Absolutely. Next year. Beyond that, I'm much less certain again, like Ernie Clemente. I feel like I've seen it. We've seen this movie before that is the most or guy in a bad season that that you can quite honestly see. And with him, and as I'm really, I don't know that I've seen enough yet to have a good read one way or another. I feel like that's kind of where I'm at on on each one of those guys. What about you? If you have more than one guy in your opening day line up next season, it's an abject disaster. Like you I don't I don't have a problem with with and it all I suppose that the final couple of months of the regular season are going to impact this decision making as well. I had no problem with the Blue Jays saying all right second base, we've got to figure it out between Spencer Horowitz and Davis Schneider. Yep. Those two dudes and Davis Schneider, you know, maybe he'll play two, three, four times a week. But the idea that both of those guys are penciled in as starters. Yes. Everyday starters next year is a nightmare. Yeah, you can't be both. No. And the other guys are okay, Ernie Clemente. Sure. If you can find a way to keep him on this roster, but you shouldn't be devastated to lose Ernie. I would agree. And Lao Jimenez. Okay. You're right. We haven't seen enough of him to know for sure. But that's a that's a nice little optionable guy. Exactly. Who backfills. Yes. Shortstop. Yes. When you expect Boboshette to have his best season of his career because he's headed towards free agency and it's weird how that happens sometimes. So yeah, it's a nice that you have like found money that those are potentially major league options that you've developed that aren't first brown picks. They're not Paul Skeens one one. No, and Spencer Horwitz. Now that he banned the the the fact that he's capable defensively at second base and it only took until this moment for the Blue Jays to try him out of that position where obviously his skill set. Yes. Looks a lot more different than when he's playing first base. He's insane, but he's done it. And that's a position of need. So that's great. But the idea that him and Davis Schneider are everyday players for this Blue Jays team next season is that's telling you the Blue Jays didn't do their job this off season. That's a that is exactly it. You should have plans A B C D before we get to more than one of those guys in your lineup every single day. Again, like this isn't to say there can't be days where both Horwitz and Schneider are in that. Yes, understand 162 long seasons. Maybe even a double header mixed in there. Of course, it's going to happen, but it cannot be the start of the plan. It can be a fallback option. If again, plans A B C D don't work out and you don't want to. I would much rather than fall back to Davis Schneider than overextend themselves. Some and I'm going to use the worst example possible. Some happy bias contract situation. I don't think that's the two options. There's obviously a lot of middle ground between there. And I think that that is the. It's funny. We we spend a lot of time, not you and I together because we haven't done a show in a hundred years, but but spend a lot of time. And I'm sure you did when I was and you're talking about, okay, what needs to happen between now and the deadline? Not in terms of who needs to go, but what needs to happen so that this team doesn't get false false hope and start hoarding on to their free agents? I'm almost now operating in that the rest of the way of like, I cannot have or any Clement going on some heater in August and September to where people are going, Hmm, what if that's my third? No, no, no. So like you want all those guys to have success, you want them to do well. But there is a point of demarcation to where you cannot get tricked by a hot month or two, especially in, you know, I know, I know it's not the old September expanded rosters, but we do see some arms you wouldn't always see in September. You don't want to see that. So No, passing tired horses. Yes. The term that comes to mind when it when it comes to teams that have strong finishes to regular seasons when they're out of it. I have to say, yes, passing tired horses. Speaking of a tired horse, Joey Votto is probably pretty tired. He's aged. Like he is actually aged. He's not like George Spring Ray. No, no, he's actually he's our real live old man. We don't have to talk a lot about the Joey Votto thing. But and I guess he got a Buffalo Bison's uniform because he must have warming up in it on Friday. And man, there must have been more than a few people that went to Buffalo to go see Joey Votto's Bison's debut, right? Well, so we had Kyle Brant on show on Friday. And it was also like his bobblehead weekend, really down in Buffalo. So I like conspiracy theory. Is he from Buffalo? I can't. Honestly, we asked him about it. And I can't remember the connection. He just like loves the bills. I don't know whatever it was. As oh, I'm talking about other stuff. But I a non zero percent of me just thinks Joey Votto's like, Oh, good morning football. Love that guy. Get me up there. I want to see it like. So it's funny you say like if there were a lot of people at the ballpark, I'm sure word of Votto spread out. But I got to be honest. Know it. Well, little offense to Joey Votto. I think the Kyle Brant bobblehead was the bigger draw that weekend. Anyways, he was warming up and that ankle, which is currently fabricated from papier mache. Yeah, it it disintegrated again. I guess Jalen Brunson's hand, Joey Votto's ankle. Okay. So that was Friday. Hasn't played since. Okay. And this coming off of yeah, stint with the Dunedin Blue Jays where he hit a home run. It hit 186 with the 647 OPS. He's 1000 years old. What's happening? He's sideshow Bob with the Rakes. But with bats, he just can't stop stepping on them and turn color. I don't know. Or it's that he's 40 years old. I mean, there's some element to that. It is as odd a 10 year for a player in an org that has yet to play a meaningful game as I think will maybe ever have quite quite frankly. It is just there's been no part of this that has been normal from the like go train videos before he signed with the team to him signing and then the letter and me screaming at you about being a Canadian and then the pay and then the Homer and then the turning the ankle the first time there's just at every single turn of this, it has just been weird and a little bit off. It's just it is so jarring. I feel bad for the guy. I do like, you know, I can feel how I feel. But he comes home. He wants to put on the Blue Jays uniform. He obviously like still wants to be around the game in some capacity way or another. It's just really weird. I have no other word for it and I wish I did. I I want to commend a guy that wants to keep going and we were supposed to talk to Pat Borders today and one of my questions, Pat Borders was playing in the minor leagues into his like early 40s. I think he declined a promotion to the Mariners because he enjoyed Tacoma so much and like yeah, he was just like loved playing a baseball. So like I commend. Hey, don't stop playing baseball until they tell you can't do it anymore. Why not? You have your whole life retiring it. Yeah, exactly. It's not like you're 70 years old. It's not like you're running for president at 80 anymore. You have 40, which is old and baseball terms, but not in the life term. So I understand that. But at a certain point, when you had the results that he had in the major leagues last season, you are 40 years old. Yeah, you did have the injuries. Yeah, you did have the performance in Dunedin. Yep. And then you're having more injury concerns. Like you can't even get into a game in Buffalo. At some point, you do have to put your hand up and say, yeah, that was good effort. Just go home. I'm sorry. I can see mean should go home. I go play chess in Etobicoke or whatever it is he does. That's he plays chess. Yeah, I know. Etobicoke. All right. So I said it. All right. That's what he does. But don't act like you don't know that he does that. I assume whatever he does. You know, I'm the exact thing. I was actually I was actually giving him credit in that he might have like one cooler hobby than playing chess in Etobicoke. Yeah, shots at the chess community. I did buddy. It's been dog days of summer. I screamed at Michael Phelps on Friday show because ESPN named him like their best athlete of the 21st century. And I was like, that can't stand. Oh, that's one of my favorite Olympics debates is like did the swimmers have this unfair advantage? Well, it's like every little stroke is another event. You said to start the show, you're like, and we have the opening ceremonies on front. And I'm like, Oh my God, are we doing flag bearer debate? That is that is truly the best. That's the best. That's the best. It's the best dumb radio topic because like I I've talked to you about this. I hate that everything in the world, like we can sit here and have an argument about this guy. No, there's an answer from generally speaking for most things now. There's a right answer for who should wave the flag for now. Well, I mean, other than who I feel it is at that moment. And that's the right answer. But there's no like concrete answer other than that. Do we know who's the flag bearer? I haven't looked into it. I I've not like normally I'm like, very interested in this. And I've just I've had other pursuits in my life. I haven't really checked in. SGA. Come on. Yeah. Well, they generally speaking that like I feel like this is how it always goes. It's like, I will do that or like, you know, for the Olympics and the winter, I'll be like, I don't know, like, we have a lot of good hockey players. And they'll go, no, no, these guys got their shine. It has to go to somebody who does steeple chase. They should let a horse do it one of these years. I understand that the actual person who rides the horse is the athlete, but why not the horse is the athlete? Yeah, get a get Ian Miller on his horse. Get him in here. Do the horses have to be Canadian? Yeah. I feel like there's some countries that would have a outsized advantage as that was the case. I don't think so. I think it's like coaching. All right. Don't spoil this. Sorry. I know. This is all great stuff. Yeah, there'll be time for a hot Olympic talk. It's not today. No, no, it's not. Because it's, you know, the day after the final golf major baseball happening. Also, Bush is coming to Budweiser stage for their loaded the greatest hits tour on August 19th with guest Jerry Cantrell and candle box to celebrate. We're giving away tickets to answer. All you have to do is tune into episodes of the fan morning show. Listen for the code word, then text that code word to 59590. Standard message and data rates may apply. Today's code word is Bush. Again, text Bush to 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win. We are giving away another pair of tickets tomorrow. But if you don't win with us, tickets on sale at ticketmaster.ca. I'm old enough to remember Bush X. What happened to the other Bush? They just like gave up. They're like, you're the real Bush. I'm not acquiesced to you. I am not old enough to remember all that. You sound like a hundred. Oh, wow. I know. See, I wrote to the wild project. And also, I would just like to commend Josh Santos back at the studio for showing the restraint to not throw in a Bush party to tonight, uh, drop on us. I'm very happy. You didn't give him enough warning for him to play exactly going into break. Exactly. All right. When we come back, we'll get into Zander Shoffley going from the major's biggest choker to like the most dominant major champion we have in recent memory. That and more next is the fan morning show continues. Ben and his Brent Gunning live from rattlesnake golf club. Diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL, the JD Bunken podcast, subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning shows Sportsnet 590, the fan Ben and his Brent Gunning. We are live from the 29th annual J's care golf tournament in support of the J's care foundation where rattlesnake point golf club where the do is on the greens. The sun is starting to rise. Also, something new this year is the J's care mid season auction. Both golfers attending this event and Bluejay's fans at home can bid on 2927 exclusive packages and unique experiences. They can also purchase by now items, which include autographed mystery balls from current and former Bluejay's as well as the to the core street banners to make bids or purchase the items fans can visit J's care dot com slash auction bidding for the auction closes on July 28th at 8 p.m. All funds raised from both the golf classic and the mid season auction will support J's care programming for more than 59,000 children and youth across Canada. If you just want to make a donation to support J's care, you can also do that at J's care dot com slash donate. Have you ever played this golf course before? I have not and it's um um what's the word I'm looking for extremely tempting to just take off rip off this headset throw it at Stephen coil as oh I don't care one of them talk to you for the next so rude well like you know like throw like like not like whip it at them like here you go all you kind of like it'd be like the D Wade LeBron picture right and I'm running to the golf course with my arms open like this yeah no it looks gorgeous I was like when we were driving in it was the I would argue the perfect time of day to look at a golf course you were already here when I got here so maybe you didn't have it the light was just creeping up there's that little bit of foggy do over the course you're getting to look over and see oh that's a nice looking hole look at that green a lot undulation I can make triple over there I put buddy I could three jack from anywhere and there's definitely some uh some holes on this course that would have me doing that no it uh it looks beautiful you know it's a good indication that you're at a good golf course it's the length of drive from the main road to the parking lot right and how twisty and turny that road is too yeah it's like they do that on purpose yes I well my favorite thing is so I was driving here and I've again never been here before I was driving in and you know GPS you know me slave to to my my my GPS and it's going one minute away and I'm like I don't I don't see golf course I'm seeing a lot of farm field I don't see golf course and it's because long drive from that one that did in yeah it was uh it was a lovely drive-in I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was nice close to my house so yeah I've only played this golf course once it was a hundred years ago and I think I shot about a hundred when I was here last um but anyways yeah it's a beautiful golf course and a great great they've had some uh they've had some like US open qualifiers here yes I know it was funny I was going to make the trek out and it was a classic like oh that'd be a nice idea for me to do and then you think about logistics and everything I remember like Podrick Harrington was trying to qualify for a US Open Year things two three years ago and I had the idea coming out here and I didn't well I've seen it speaking of qualifying I mean a qualifier almost won the open championship Justin Rose finishing two back that broke my heart of Xander Shoffley it meant a lot to him obviously and a lot to me I jumped on him at seven to one after uh after Friday yes that's all in for him good good call he did nothing to disqualify himself on Sunday what happened was Xander Shoffley just took it yep he said that's mine give it to me give it to me and another 65 the only man to to shoot multiple rounds of 65 in major championships he's he's now also won the biggest and the smallest trophies in major golf oh yeah the Wanamaker definitely and the claret jug I think by volume well I mean the master's trophy it's a little wider though not as tall you're talking about the trophy yeah nobody even thinks about the master's trophy I know one but there is one the claret jug definitely smaller than the green jacket yes I suppose I mean we're gonna wait well I'm not I didn't say wait I don't know who you compare a jug to a jacket what if it's what if no shots although I guess this is one what if it's Craig Stadler's street jacket or if like there's somebody oh interesting or what if it's like one of the old ones I feel like sport coach used to be thicker like Gary players with this probably made a steal probably shoulder pads yeah shoulder pads just a thick non-breathable yeah stuffy I'd gladly take one just for what it's worth anyways Xander Shoffley used to be my favorite guy to to watch crumble on a Sunday of a major but unfortunately for for me and a guy that's into shot in Freud he's good now and he's just clutch he was he was clutched at the PGA yep and he was clutch again yesterday in typical open championship conditions on about his Saturday which was so fun guys are hitting driver in a par three on Saturday that was a great graphic it was all of the guys it was the they just picked like one of the like okay rip driver holes here and it was the guy's tee shots on the Sunday as opposed to the Saturday and each guy lost at least 145 yards yeah it's not insane that's great and yeah you'd get sick of it if it was every week they were doing that yeah I could do like one or two more but yeah I wouldn't want that all but that this is a standalone and that everybody goes into it no there's nothing worse like no no offense to the last time the open was at St Andrews but when it's like beautifully sunny and calm and the scores are like minus 25 yep I guess that's no fun Roy made a two-person loss yeah that's that's not what you want you want something like we got at a drone I'm of the opinion I've been kind of workshop in this take and I've I've backwards realized it that I think it's just my subconscious trying to make me feel better about Rory but I was thinking like if you have if a golfer has a hole on the grand slam resume like if they don't have the masters or they don't have the US Open they don't have the PGA I hold not having the open championship against them the most because to me it is the like the masters the PGA the US Open yes they're all different tests but at the grand scheme of things they're all much more similar than they are different especially the PGA and the US Open now it's like okay big rough fast greens like what really more drunk Americans at one than the other I guess although I don't know plenty of drunk Americans at both this is the one where it asks a completely different question of you even on even on a day where it's 18 and sunny and not a breath of air you still have to hit shots and links golf right gone challenges that you don't so to me I would argue that if you don't have this one of the four it's the biggest hole the masters will always hold the most weight yeah because it's the masters yeah but at the grand scheme of things it's one golf course that never changes oh buddy no no I'm I'm with you yeah I'm saying it's a very specific one and and it's it's yeah it's uh the best golfers in the world but a very select few of them that competed Augusta National what if like that was your only major and you got two of them yeah and like let's let's say I don't know say you you you won six total tournaments this season but also you had a chance to win on Sunday and you three-potted from six and a half feet on on the ninth hole to to gag it away that was jarring all right so let's let's let's open up the Scotty Sheffler Xander Schofle question this thusly I would just okay go ahead yeah all right who had the better year because we got Xander Schofle only had two wins yeah those are the only two wins he had pretty good ones to have yep pj championship open championship Scotty Sheffler won six times including the masters but that's it it is one one major this season we have the better year yeah I think I think you have to look at this the way the players look at this and I don't always believe that in every sport but with this one I do I don't really even have a good reason why it's just the one that carries the most weight maybe it's because there is no team element guys aren't talking himself into it it's truly just them and the players will always just say the majors of the thing they care about far and away the most I I think back to it was 2015 and I'm somebody else had a wonderful season and it was the it was the Rory or actually I think it was Rory and Jordan Speeth and it was Rory ripped off all these wins wins wins wins wins and Jordan Speeth had two majors and maybe one other win that year and two a man every player Jordan Speeth had the better year two majors this is what the guys judged himself on if you're just asking me put a like you know a strokes gained for a golf metric on it of every week and week out who is the better player on average it was Scotty Sheffler but much like we don't care about some guy I don't know I'm scoring 69 goals in the regular season just to pick an arbitrary number a thing that might have happened we care about what happens when it matters the most and that's why I think you have to go you have to go shopping I will say for me and doesn't for as many people I think the tours play offs matter it's not a major oh my god I think they matter and if Sheffler wins I think I can easily be talked about oh my god you're big FedEx Cup guy it's not that I'm a big FedEx Cup guy embarrassment it is literally the measure of how they play all season long then they have playoff events where those matter more it's it is the best replication of golf oh yeah what we care about is sports and I'm not saying if you ask me to rank them one through five obviously winning the FedEx Cup is fifth out of behind the four majors but it doesn't mean nothing I would here's what I would say I equate it to winning the players something like that like a very a very monumental win because like we care about the elevated events but the player matters more than those I would say the FedEx Cup is kind of on par with that yeah here's what I would I would call it a coronation of King fraud if Scotty Sheffler wins it because he's a fraud he won twice at Augusta which is congratulations yeah it's an incredible test of golf but it's a very specific one we can all agree right agreed local knowledge and there's a reason why Freddy couples at a coffee the coffee won't arrest you right right that if you you can keep playing there forever and it's the the one major Tiger Woods can make the freaking cut at right like that there's an indication of how specific a test of golf is watch your tongue that was tough to ask if we'll talk about Tiger later on in the program but yeah you maybe win like another major would be nice I would love to see it yeah right it would make sense in this season where the fraud of all frauds keeps frauding his way to these you know shortened field no cut PGA tour events with no live players on it victories oh yeah he would win yet another fraud event a ton of live players that were that were in the mix there at at the open championship oh wait just Rom who was fake in the mix with his Brooks Cafe at a moment at a moment at a moment okay I'm looking at the top 10 here we got one live guy in the in the in the top 10 there were more guys not there were just as many guys not on the PGA tour in terms of just not on live not on the PGA tour then there were live guys there so yeah the last word on this oh you get it Scotty Scheffler fraud okay uh I don't really care that's fine time now for the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada the official life insurance partner of the CFL week seven in the CFL starting where week six ended with a red black win over the Alex for the second straight week Ottawa beating Edmondson 2014 in front of their home fans at TD play stadium only one total touchdown combined in the game 12 field goal attempts eight were good four on each side Edmondson winless and at the bottom of the west Ottawa improving to four and two they move into second in the E second game on Friday the rough riders defense dominating the blue bombers in an inner division matchup between two longtime rivals Saskatchewan staying perfect at Mosaic Stadium with the 19 to 9 win over Winnipeg in what was the two teams first meeting of this season lone bright spot for the bombers veteran kicker Sergio Castillo who had all the team's points added two more 50 plus field goals on his season Saturday at Tim Hortons field Tiger Cats they pick up their first win of the season taken down the Argos 27 24 not only was it Hamilton's first win of the season Tycats first win over the Argos since week 10 of the 2022 season even with that win though Hamilton stand at the bottom of the east one and five record Argos five hundred and three and three they fall to third in the division now behind a four and two Ottawa team Montreal still alone at the top of the east at five and one they were on a buy this week final game of week seven Stampede is snapping the BC lines five game winning streak and knocking them out of sole position of first in the west with a 25 24 win in front of their home crowd at McMahon Stadium last night BC at five and two now falling behind five and one Saskatchewan in the west while Calgary goes to an even three and three for third place and that was the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada the official life insurance partner of the CFL when we come back Bulboushette on the shelf for a while Bulboushette according to Bob Nightingale and USA Today is full of friends yay the okay with being traded that and more next is the fan morning show continues Ben and his friend Gunning live from the 29th annual Jay's care golf tournament on Sportsnet 590 the fan
