Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

8am Hour - AJ Preller And Bret Boone Join The Show!

Ben & Paul start the 8am hour by welcoming Padres President of Baseball Operations AJ Preller to the show as he recaps the moves he made yesterday at the trade deadline, and why it was so important to him to bolster that Padres bullpen! Then at the bottom of the hour, Audacy MLB insider Bret Boone joins the show as he does each Wednesday and gives us his thoughts on the trade deadline, yesterday's walk-off win over the dodgers, and more! Listen here!

Duration:: 44m
Broadcast on:: 31 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Now today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation, find your next credit card, or loan for a big purchase, and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. This season, the W is going to new heights, and that means the queens are ready to take it to court and the court. Welcome to Queens of the Court, an Odyssey Original Podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoops, and I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long, you can count on us to bring you interviews with some of your favorite WNBA stars, analysis of all teams, and hot takes you can only find in this courtroom. Listen to Queens of the Court, a WNBA podcast presented by AT&T on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com, we've done your homework. That way home on a fun Wednesday morning, we just heard from Woods pre-5am in Hawaii on the first full day of his vacation. He could not stop himself from calling in to talk about last night's game and the trade deadline. Speaking of the trade deadline, we've got on the line, our next guest is someone who, earlier in the morning, you heard former MLB executive Jim Bowdoin say, if he's not the executive of the year, then the system is broken right in Major League Baseball. I know he doesn't care about that sort of thing, but we've got AJ Preller, Padre's General Manager and President of Baseball operations with us post-trade deadline. AJ, good morning. Congratulations on that win last night. How you feeling? Good. Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me. Did you get any sleep now? I don't know if you saw, but the camera has caught you last night in your box. Big yawn. How much sleep do you get on the night before the trade deadline when you've got GMs on the east coast and the west coast and they may be calling what does that night like for you? Obviously, it's really like a few weeks now, because you have the draft, right next up to the trade deadline, so the last month, almost, it's a ton of fun and it's baseball, we're just talking about baseball all day long every day. But the last week, obviously, it intensifies and we took our baseball off staff. They went on the road, so we were there in DC and Baltimore and then came back home and then obviously the last 48 hours, especially this year, every deadline is a little bit different in terms of the information back and forth. There were a ton of calls back and forth and a lot of things flying, but it was a lot of sleep last couple of weeks. So, like, how did the trade with the Marlins? Peter Bendix, how does that work? Like, how long were you talking about that? How quickly did it come together? Because you've got obviously a deadline, you know, three o'clock yesterday, you've got to get it all submitted to Major League Baseball and finalized. So, tell me a little just about how that process works. Yeah, I mean, I think specifically the tennis Scott deal, you know, obviously you've got, you know, we're canvassing, kind of getting a good sense of what's out there and, you know, different, different possibilities and, you know, each day you get a little bit more information. Some teams play it pretty close to the vest. Some teams are pretty open, you know, in terms of what they may be willing to give up or what they're looking to do. So, as you keep getting more and more into what the, you know, what the realistic things are, you know, and then in our room, it's just constantly ranking and re-ranking and talking about different possibilities. In terms of a Peter in the Marlins, like, he's, you know, again, like, I think they were clear. They're looking to build their program and add a lot of players to their system. You know, I think they were aggressive, obviously, you know, earlier in the season and then, you know, here at the deadline and they're willing to make trades and they're a very straightforward group that tells you here are guys we like. Here's kind of like the parameters of different deals and that makes it easy to work with in terms of like whether you just make decisions, whether you want to do something or not or fits. And, you know, we kind of got to send three or four days ago that we were going to be one of the teams on that short list for, you know, for Tanner Scott and some of their other players, they were moving on. And then, you know, yesterday, it just kept progressing a little bit more and more and ultimately, honestly, probably about 30 seconds, we made the deal. And then I think one of the media rather than Jeff Bassner, somebody broke it. But it was pretty clean process. It took a few, you know, it took a few weeks, but, you know, in the last few days, we started lining up more and more of the players. AJ, I heard what you said yesterday before the game about, you know, how the playoffs work and with the days off and how important it is to have a lockdown bullpen. I think of kind of what the Phillies kind of had go in the last couple of years in the playoffs with all the guys they can throw at you. Tell us kind of about the thinking behind how the playoffs now works with so many rounds, but not, you know, seven games in seven days, why the bullpen is so critical. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, any championship team, you got to have a lockdown bullpen. So, I mean, I think that's, you know, that's always the case with, you know, with most teams that go into October, these are going to be close games. You saw it last night, you know, teams that can kind of, you know, hold other teams down, it gave us a chance to get back into that game and then late in the game. You know, if you can shut down other teams, best players, I mean, it's a huge part of it. And, you know, with the current playoff system, you know, you're seeing, it's just, you know, you get the extra round of playoffs, less off days, you've got to go to an extra starter. We saw that in the playoffs, you know, a few years ago where you've got to go to your fourth and fifth guys more than more than in the past. And, you know, a lot of times with that extra round and just the, you know, the amount of games, you know, a lot of teams are choosing to kind of go to their pens earlier and more often. So just having that depth, I think, you know, you look a few years ago, you know, a lot of different ways to win, but it was kind of like if you could get three starters and, you know, probably about three pen guys that you could ride throughout the playoffs. You know, teams had some success doing that now. You know, you got to have a lot more depth and, you know, we just wanted to have as many weapons as possible and guys that could, you know, that could impact us against a really good lineup. We saw that in twenty two when we, when we beat the Mets and the Dodgers to our as Hader Garcia, Martinez, that whole crew was a huge part of it. And hopefully we have another group that can, that Mike and Ruben can use and those guys can get some huge outs for us. And, you know, the next couple months and what's going to be a heck of a pen, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah, you got to get there first, you know, to be well set up for the postseason. And then I know a lot of people just asking about, you know, what's going to happen now at the back end of the rotation. Obviously, you're hoping to get some guys back and healthy, but hope's not necessarily a plan. You did pick up Martin Perez. Tell me a little bit about about Perez. Why him and not maybe some of the other options is there something you saw there that you think that he can be a useful piece for you the rest of the season. Yeah, I think, you know, as we looked at in different comments, we checked in on all the starters that were out there and had interest to different degrees and a lot of the starting options that were there. You know, and ultimately just, you know, we, we felt like the ability to go get Tanner Scott, Ethan, Adam, but then add honestly, you know, piece of that Marlin deal in terms of giving up the players we gave up was getting Brian Owen back who, you know, we think has the ability to feel different roles in our pen and then Martin. You know, I think, you know, he's left-handed. He's been an all-star pitcher, you know, in his career, got experience. He's kind of been through this, been on a world championship team. You know, he still has four pitches and we feel like he's a guy that Ruben and the pitching group can help out with some different things that we're going to talk to him as well about, but, you know, he's kind of been through it before and he's got real stuff. And again, I think for, for us, you know, as we looked at it, you know, with a deep pen, you know, starters that have some experience, a moxie left-handed, which is a nice compliment to our right-handed group and, you know, can give us some innings. And then we know that, you know, whether it's a Joe Musgrove or, you know, looking at looking at guys in AAA, John Ubrido, Randy Vasquez, the development, we've got some depth there in that area and we're going to, we're going to obviously need it here in the next couple of months. Talk to Pottery's General Manager, AJ Preller, and AJ talked to you enough to know you're about as open-minded as it comes in ways to improve your roster. So did you go into this deadline with the idea we weren't going to trade Ethan Salas or Leah Dallas-Deveriz? Or were you even open-minded about that? I know you listened, you said you always want to see what other teams are saying and asking who they're asking about, but was that like the plan? Like, you know, unless something shocking happens, we want to keep those two guys. Yeah, I mean, they're too super exciting, you know, young players. So it's, you know, you've got, like, you know, you've got a can of two premium positions, you know, catcher and short stop left-handed bat and a switch at bat. So, again, like, we think highly of a lot of guys in our system. I think I said this again yesterday. We know we're going to, you know, we kind of look at it, you're going to make trades and you're going to trade players. If you know what you're doing from an evaluation standpoint or scout, do a great job. You're going to trade guys that are going to, you know, get to the big leagues and potentially impact and hopefully you're making deals that help your current team and your future teams. And you're getting talent back as well. With those two players, obviously, you've got to make evaluations of where they stack up. You know, we'll listen on anybody. I think you owe it to the team, the organization, just to listen. But we think as highly as of Lea Leo and Ethan as any guys we've had in the system here, we've had some great ones in the last 10 years. You know, and it's cool, too. You get into the process and internally you have your own, you know, opinions of those players. But when you kind of get into the trade deadline, you get a sense of what the industry thinks and I think they kind of share that opinion. So, for us, we think they're huge parts of our future and, you know, obviously really happy to see what their development is going to look like here in the next year. You know, look like here in the next few years and come out to back Pekko and be in part of our core. You know, Ajay, we were talking earlier about your ability to restock the farm system seemingly year after year, especially when you have big trades like you had in 22 and trades like you had this trade deadline. There's a portion of the fan base, though, that looks at those trades yesterday and they go, Ajay sold the farm. He sold the farm for some bullpen pieces. I'm just curious, how do you respond to that? The idea of, quote unquote, selling the farm because you forgot that ability of restocking the farm every year. Is that just a total confidence in yourself? No, I mean, I think the depth of the system at least gives us options. You know, there's been years where we've made trades, there's been times where we haven't made deals at the deadline. So, I think we have, you know, I think we have a great scouting group. You know, Chris Kemp on the amateur side, Pete DeYoung on the pro side, you know, and on the international side, our group does a great job. So, that gives us the ability to at least have these conversations. You know, it's not, we definitely aren't flipping. Like, we understand, like, if it's really hard to get, you know, really good young players. And you can't just, like, flip, you know, snap your fingers and go get two or three more. That's a huge process. It takes a lot of time. But we've got a group that's, you know, they work really hard and they're good at it. That at least enables us to have these conversations. We've kind of been through this the last few years where I think after some of the moves in 20 or 22, it's kind of like, all right, well, you know, now they've sold the farm quote unquote and then a few years, you know, a few years a year. Two months later, there were some other guys. And I think this year, you know, the same thing, we felt like internally, we have a lot of pitching depth. And some of which has been identified by the industry, some of which internal, you know, I think for us, like, you know, we feel like that was an area of stress. And that was an area we could have listened to in these deals. And you've got to be willing to give something to get something. You know, no teams call up and, you know, we'll take your, you know, your, you know, 70th ranked player for some real value. You know, so I think our scouts do a great job. Our development step does a good job. And, you know, that gives us those options to make some decisions. And, you know, I think this case, this year with the deadline, we felt like we traded some really good, especially the pitching prospects that you mentioned. But we've got some guys that we feel like internally in the system that we've identified that we think are going to be really good for us as well. I heard you say that yesterday. And I know you don't ever want to tip your hand or play favorites. But I'm curious about a couple of those guys who may not have hit the rankings yet or having good seasons that you've got your eye on. Can you share anything about, you know, some of the guys that you're excited about with the arms in your system? Yeah. I mean, it was that we had, you know, so many calls from other teams as well about guys like, you know, Francis Peña and Rebaya and Isaiah Lowe. I think if, you know, you go on, on, on Giannis on Twitter, he identifies him every night, I feel like, you know, we've, we feel like we got guys that, you know, that, that internally, we feel really good about. And that's just a few. That's just to name a few. And, you know, I think, you know, I think from our standpoint again, like we've, it's fun to watch the development of a lot of these guys, you know, in our system. You know, and ultimately when we sat there and talked, it wasn't like we were looking at the step, like, hey, we only have these two prospects to deal from or, you know, and the end of the other teams have to like your players. And I think for us, you know, again, like that was a huge part of our calculation internally was, you know, having those conversations, talking about, hey, if we move so and so, you know, how do we rank or evaluate, you know, this player versus that player, knowing that the next, you know, you always need to add to your current to your current group and your current team with guys coming up from the system. We've had some of some guys come up this year and make real contribution. And, you know, I feel really confident about what we have in the system right now that we're going to show up here, you know, maybe in the next few months, but definitely in the next few years, that we're going to really contribute from the pitching side especially. AJ, I really appreciate it. I hope you got some rest last night. And good luck to the team. Great way to start post all-star break with last night's win. That was a heck of a lot of fun. And it's good to talk to you again this morning. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. AJ Preller, president of baseball operations, general manager for the San Diego Padres in breaking the chat by mentioning, you know, a Padres fan and observer that we all follow in too much more. He's watching. He's watching. He's watching. Yeah. He's aware of what's going on out there. There's no doubt about that. And some of the names, like Isaiah Lowe that he brought up that he thought was, we're pushing honestly some of the guys that he traded. And keep in mind, you know, people like Keith Law in the industry who evaluated the trade made this point yesterday. The Padres traded a lot of guys who were stocks were falling this year. Not the guys on the rise, but, you know, let's go, who struggled this year. Snelling has struggled this year. Yeah, they were the names to watch at the start of the year with high expectations and ranked in baseball. America's top 100. They weren't having good seasons though. And maybe the new organizations fixed them. Maybe it was temporary and they got a good deal here or maybe they weren't going to work out. And they've got other guys that they feel better about because the trajectory is a positive one as opposed to a negative one right now with some of the guys that they did trade yesterday. Yeah. You think of those teams that were sellers and they're not going anywhere this year. They may not even be going anywhere next year. Those are the teams that are like, yeah. Yeah. I see something there. We're like, we might be able to break through with this picture or this player or whatever and maybe get something out of them. But the Padres, while you're always building the future, we are in so much more of a win now mode that you have to make those moves. If you want to comment on anything you heard AJ say, we can open the phone lines back up. 83, 3, 2, 8, 8, 0, 97, 3, however, at the bottom of the hour, I know people are asking, where's AJ on a big league Wednesday? Is Adam Jones his birthday? So we're giving him the day off. He's going to join us tomorrow. Yes. But we do have Brett Boone coming up at the bottom of the hour. So it's still a partially big league Wednesday. I mean, Skip Schumacher, AJ Prowler and Brett Boone is a pretty big league Wednesday lineup. So more calls, more talk about last night's game and booty at the bottom of the hour. Go ahead after a check of traffic here on 97.3 to fan. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family, homes.com. We've done your homework. It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history. And you know what that means. Court is back in session. Welcome to Queens of the Court, an Odyssey original podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoop. And I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite team. And lots of hot tape. Order, order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Nice! Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable, fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase. And invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Hi, good insight from AJ Preller. If you missed it, the Odyssey app is just right there for you to go back and rewind it to eight o'clock. Or you can catch it later on our YouTube or podcast versions of the Ben & Woods program. Welcome back. I've got Brett Boone joining us at the bottom of the hour in just about ten minutes. So it was pretty clear. Obviously, AJ Preller is gambling a little bit with the starting rotation. And we're going to see some combination of in the fourth and fifth starters the rest of the year. Randy Vasquez, obviously. Martine Perez. Johnny Brito. Brian Hoeing might get some kind of opener type starts. I mean, you're going to have to with what, 53 games remaining. Even if you skip guys, you don't want to skip too many off days because you're trying to save innings on Michael King's arm. And keep guys as fresh as possible if you do make it to October. So you feel like you're still going to need another, you know, 16 to 18 starts from your fourth and fifth starters, at least the rest of the way. You know, that's a, that's a lot to gamble here when you don't have now. Joe Musgrove may get some of those if he comes back healthy. You Darvish may get some of those if he ever returns. But again, you can't guarantee that either of them are going to either come back healthy in the case of Musgrove or even effectively. I mean, Joe may come back. Is he going to be Joe? What's he going to have in the tank? What's he going to look like? Is he going to take five or six starts for him to really get locked in? That'd be great if he does when he gets to the playoffs. But if you don't get to the playoffs, it doesn't matter how well Joe Musgrove is pitching at the end of September. You have to get there for that to matter. So there's a bit of a gamble here. And I understand, you know, they went down a couple of tracks. There's only limited things you can do with, you know, especially it sounded like he did not want to trade. Ethan Salas and Leah Dallas de Vries, because you could have had crochet. You could have had, you could have had flarity for sure. If you had dangled either of those guys based on what, you know, we've heard, you could have had either of them, but you would have needed to dangle at least one of those two guys and they did not want to do that. So a bit of a gamble here going forward in the starting rotation. Yeah, I mean, again, I liked the moves that were made yesterday. I think the Padres are better today, better yesterday than they were before the trades. But there was that concern about the rotation and that definitely is still there with me. Like that didn't go away just because they got, you know, Martine Perez, like, I'm still nervous. But I wonder if that just shows you that AJ is more confident than maybe we think about somebody like Joe Musgrove returning. Yeah, to me, it's quintessential AJ though. You look at what he, what does he do in the draft? He tries to identify the most talented player possible. And what he saw at this trade deadline was the bullpen arms that he could get were just better. He had more electric guys in the bullpen than were available starting pitching was. And the starters just didn't blow anyone's hair back that were available at the trade deadline. But the relievers Adam Scott, those guys are really, really good. And he goes, would I rather get two really good players? And I know, all right, they're going to the bullpen and we'll take our chances with the starters. Or should I just get, you know, spend a ton like the Astros did for you, say, Kakuchi and get a guy who's not even pitching well right now. And who knows, he may hurt you more. He may hurt them more than he helps them going down the stretch. Pretty sure that the bullpen guys for however many, you know, innings they've got and what they've got, they're going to help the Padres going forward. There's no guarantee that a starting pitcher actually helps you. There's no guarantee Martin Perez is any help at all. We certainly saw Vince Velasquez and Jake Arietta were negative help for the Padres in 2021. So why pick up one of those guys when you know these two guys, as much as you can in baseball, they are really good relief pitchers and should be really good relief pitchers for you for at least the rest of this season. I mean, that's AJ, right? Yeah. He's not, he drops that way. He acquires players that way. He doesn't care what position they're plus. Oh, nine short stops? Fine. They're the best nine players I can get. We'll move Jackson Merrill if we have to. We'll figure it out. I want the best baseball players on my team and then we'll let the manager figure it out. Now, was Bob Melvin able to figure it out? Not really. Has Mike Schilt been able to figure it out a little bit better than other managers have been able to figure it out for the madness that is AJ Preller. So we'll see. We will see going forward. Would I feel better if they had a solid, one more solid starter in the mix? Of course. Of course, you'd feel a lot better about it, but I don't feel bad about this team. That's for sure. They're pretty good baseball team. I agree. I'll be right when I was drinking some water. Pretty good baseball team. Fine. They are fun. All right. We'll get Brett Boone's thoughts on the Padres. He was very excited yesterday at the trade deadline last night's game. What else went on around Major League Baseball? Always get good conversations with Boonie, our Odyssey podcast colleague. When we come back next year, it's Ben. It's Paul with Woods on vacation on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 through the fan. Baseball coverage of 97 through the fan is presented by T-Mobile, switch to T-Mobile. You can get tons of benefits and still save on every plan versus AT&T and Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out how at tmobile.com/switch. Starting to think we need to get Brett Boone his own walk up music at some point, you know? We'll ask him about that. He's standing by. I don't remember. Obviously, I was there when he was at the queue and playing for the Padres. I could not tell you what his walk up song was. You know what? I'm getting a little PTSD here. When he was on the 2001 Mariners, that team that just dominated their theme song for the year that year, Boonie remembers this. It was who let the dogs at? Oh, God. They played it like 10 times a game every game. Remember that, Boonie? Wow. What do I do? That was your walk up song. That was your walk up song. We'll wait for traffic. All right. What was your walk up song then? Actually, rest in peace. The lead singer of Crazy Town passed away recently, I heard. But my walk up song, and I expected somebody to queue it up. And I would really like to be introduced with it. It was "Butterfly" by Crazy Town. Tremendous tune. All right. We did that. You know what I'm saying. You queue it up. You'll know what I'm saying. No, we played it a few weeks ago. He did pass away recently. What's he got thoughts on every great musician? Like, what's he met him? The lead singer? And we talked about it. Is that it? Yeah. Nice. All right. All right. We got it. We got it. It has his walk up song now. And by the way, we are joined right now by Odyssey MLB insider Brett Boonie. Go ahead, Boonie. I'm not going to interrupt you if you want to say some more on the music. No, I was laughing. I love that walk up song. I love it. It's yours now. Insider calls presented by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by Brett, also the host of the Brett Boonie podcast, featuring the most notable names in MLB and around sports every week. Now, I understand you're also calling us from the islands, just like Woodsy did earlier this morning. I live with woods right now. Has he hit you up? I've been out of my port here for about two hours. That's early. That's very... The wife is sleeping. The wife is sleeping inside. I don't think I've woken up any of the neighbors, but now, just a little R&R. Nice. I'll be honest with you. I'm not a vacation guy. You know, I'm a golf vacation guy. Me too. I'm not a vacation guy. I just... There's only so many hours I can log on the beach and at the pool and drinking my bird's jin pina coladas. There's just only so much I can do it. So without telling anybody, I'm kind of excited. I'm coming home in a couple days. Well, you'll have plenty to talk. I'm a little spoiled. Plenty to talk about. And you still did the Boon podcast. You had Jim Bowden, the GM on to break down everything that went on at the trade deadline. I know you talked about the Padres moves, adding more bullpen pieces, including Tanner Scott yesterday. Your thoughts, so we just talked to AJ Preller as well, on what he did at the deadline. Thank you, Boonie. You know, I didn't know what to expect just because, you know, I don't think from a team standpoint, I don't think the inventory is quite there. You know, the big name, you were thinking of a scuba and a crocheter. They're going to move. And when you look at the Padres with Musgrove and Darvish being out, you know, that's a clear thing is, oh, they need a starting pitcher to kind of bolster that rotation, but I think Prolin went the other way. He went out and got the best bullpen arms available. You've got a Jason Adam and a Tanner Scott who's got a 1-1 down there in Miami to add to a Suarez, you know, that they moved De Los Santos and they brought in these two power arms. And I think the more you look at it with the Padres offense kind of coming a lot of distance, playing really good, you know, eight out of their last 10, Bogart's is back. You're just crossing your fingers that Tati's comes back and is healthy and can help up Machado hitting two home runs last night. What a game last night, Merrill, you know, Machado and Merrill hitting the two home runs of the ninth and that Solano finish it off. This team is vibing right now. They're playing well. They're in a wild card spot as we speak, chasing the Dodgers down. But I really like these additions. I think that never more so than in current times, 2024, is a power bullpen. Been kind of the way people build their teams and seems to be like a real good formula going into the postseason. So instead of addressing that starting pitcher and obviously the scoogles and the crochets were not going to be available, nobody ended up landing them. They went the other route just pulled through that bullpen and I think they did really good for them. They were one of the winners at this trade deadline. Padres are definitely in my top four of the winners that make in their team better. Yeah, it was an interesting deadline because it was busy. There were a lot of trades by volume, but I saw there was no, you know, one Soto trader. There's no future Hall of Famers and there were no even top 100 prospects traded at least according like current rankings from most, you know, farm system rankings outlets. So it was more on the volume side of it. What were like some of the notables like the price tag for you, say Kakuchi seemed high. The one for Jack Flaherty seemed a little low surprisingly, but then we find out later that that maybe he had some medical concerns that torpedoed a deal with the Yankees. What were some of your other takeaways from yesterday, Brett? Well, I was really kind of surprised that the race, although at this stage of the game, I don't question the Tampa Bay race. They've had so much success with overturning a roster. It seems like on a yearly basis, you don't even know who's playing on their team year to year and consistently they find their way into the postseason. I was a little surprised. They dealt away so many guys only being three and a half out of the wildcard. That was a little bit of a surprise to me. The others weren't, you know, Chicago getting rid of everybody. They could, the Miami Marlins moving as much inventory as they can. Dodgers came in late with a Flaherty, and we're going to see how big of a move that was. Flaherty a year ago getting moved to deadline and ended up being a bust. But I think from what I'm hearing from Tigers, Tigers people, it's a different Jack Flaherty than it's been in the past Easter in the corner and it is going to be an entity for the Dodgers. They're an interesting case because they're probably the deepest team in baseball, but they've had their share of injuries this year. You know, Mookie currently sits on the IEL, Max Muncie's been out pretty much the entire season. You lose Yamamoto, Glassnell's been on and off the IEL, he was back last night. You finally get a Kershaw back, but you lose a bure. So Flaherty, that's going to be a rush to that clubhouse that's going to help them out. Dodgers are going to be a good team. But it's going to be interesting to see how Jack Flaherty responds. Is it the, finally has he made the turn in his big lead career and going to be that guy that you don't want to face in the postseason? Time will tell. I'd like what the Mariners did. You know, I like, as much as I'd like what the Padres did, I'd like what the Mariners did. There weren't those bonafide big offenses, like he said, so will a juggernaut, someone that's going to make a difference. The only guy I saw out there that might have been available, that ended up not being available, was a Vladimir Guerrero. And Jim Bowden told me on the Monday podcast, he said, "Bully, they're not going to move Flaherty at any cost." And I kind of believed them, but it ended up being true. They didn't move him. And you look around the game on the teams that are winning, poised in position for the postseason, they had their players and the teams that were selling didn't have that big star offensive. You can make a case for a Robert out of the Chicago White Sox, but I think a lot of teams didn't trust him. They trust the skill set. They know it's a star skill set, but he seems to have a tough time staying on the field. So when it was all said and done, there were no stars moved. Like you said, a lot of all, even a lot of good players change in addresses. You know, I agree with you that most of the teams did make sense. One team that I didn't understand what they were doing is the San Francisco Giants, who traded away Jorge Solaire and then they traded away Alex Cobb, but then they didn't trade Blake Snell because they said we're still kind of in it and then they lose and now they're five games out in the wildcard. Any thoughts on like where the Giants are and what they were possibly doing up there? Well, you know, I can only compare because you think you try to get little certain points of the season where you say, okay, now we know what our team is. Well, you know, I pay close attention to the Padres. I also like pay close attention to the Seattle Mariners. Five weeks ago, Seattle Mariners were up 10 games in the division. Before last night, they were in second place. So it just shows me how quick the standings can change in a short term. But look at the San Francisco Giants and they ended up moving Solaire. But I look at that rotation now, you know, Snell coming off a 15-punch out game. You got a Robbie Ray who's a few years removed from a saiyan. You've got a Blake Snell. You've got a Webb, a Hicks and a Harrison. You look up and down the National League in the starting rotations. Very few rival that. Now, if all those guys pitch like they potentially can, that's as formidable as the starting rotation as I see. Yeah, they're five games out. They're not when the division in the National League West. But for me, with that rotation, you get hot. You can do a lot of damage. So yeah, it's not the best place to be sitting right now, five games out of the wildcard. But at the same time, you look at that rotation and that's a rotation that potentially can rattle off, you know, 15 of 20. So I wouldn't count them out. And I think that's why I think their general manager was looking at that situation going, wow, you got Snell, Ray and Webb and you get them rolling. You can put together some pretty good winning streak. So I wouldn't count them out by any means. Fair, but then they didn't get anybody to help them go on that run. So they just kind of sat on the fence a little bit. No, but you know, Ben, I look at it this way. I look at it like the Texas Rangers as of yesterday, now they're four and a half out. They were three and a half out of the division. If they get to the playoffs, it's not going to be via wildcard. It's probably going to be the division because I think that division in the AL West is as vulnerable as it's ever been. But you look at a Texas and a Chris Young who's been on the field for a long time. So he has that player, that player mentality versus the general manager mentality. I think there's a mix there, but he's still got that player side to him. He's looking at a team and going, wait a minute, we want a World Series a year ago. The offense hasn't been anywhere close to what it was a year ago, but I still have the pieces. I still have the Seegers and the Simeons and the Garcia's who are star quality offensive players. And now all of a sudden, you know, I have a de Grom waiting in the way. He's going to come back and be the de Grom, we know how sure he's going to pitch. I know I've got E Baldi, a Bradford just came back. So he's thinking, I'm not going to say we're not going to be in the postseason, but I'm not going to say we are going to be in the postseason either. So they really kind of didn't do much. You know, they sent a Lorenzan because they had an overcapacity of starting pitching. So they did move Lorenzan, but they just kind of stood back and they weren't selling out saying we're not going to be there, but they're not going for it either talking to Brett Bohn. Insider calls are brought to you by Granger and speaking of going for the division, got to ask after the win last night, what a what a game at Petco Park down five nothing, walk off the Dodgers in the 10th Padres are five and a half games out. They just bolstered their bullpen. The Dodgers remain beset by some injuries. You know, they did, as you mentioned, added Jack Flaherty, added Tommy Edmond, added a couple of other pieces at the all start at the deadline. Can the Padres do you think make a run actually at the Dodgers in the NLS over these last two months? Right. Without a doubt, without a doubt, you know, I just told you with the Seattle Mariners and what and what the how they gave up that that lead, anything is possible, of course. But I think in this day and age and history starting to prove it out, it's just getting the seat at the table, Ben, and I think that should be everybody's strategy at this stage of the game. Being healthy, going into the postseason, and just having a seat at the table, and it doesn't matter whether you're in the division, I think as a player from a player's standpoint, it's always rewarding to be able to sit there at the end of the season and have that, you know, and win that division and have that celebration. But if you're looking at it just strictly for all business, it's just having a seat at the table that is all that matters because I think it's as easy as it's ever to get to the postseason. I just really think with so many rounds in the playoffs, it's probably the hardest time it's ever been to actually win the World Series with so many variables, and it's all about getting hot at the right time. I think a year ago approved it, you know, the Texas Rangers obviously were a really good team, one of the best offensive teams in the game a year ago, but if you look at that roster up and down that starting rotation, that bullpen, to say that they were going to win the World Series, no chance. I would have loved to go back and see what the Vegas odds were, and then we don't even need to talk about Arizona going through Philly being down to in the most chaotic atmosphere I've ever seen, and to end up coming back and winning three and moving out of the World Series. After that series last year, I'll never say never about anything. So I think it's about getting a seat at the table. Of course you want to push the Dodgers, you want to push the envelopes, especially when you go head to head and make it exciting, but I think from a business perspective, it's all about getting a seat at the table, but I know what those players are thinking of that clubhouse. They're hot, they just got a big adrenaline rush by getting those bullpen arms, and they're feeling good about themselves. So by all means as a player right now, I'm not thinking wildcard I'm thinking let's go catch those Dodgers and beat their butt. Great stuff, Boney, I'll let you get back to doing ridiculously early morning radio interviews on the vacation that you don't really want to be on any more anyway. I don't want to say too spoiled, I like no, don't worry, no one's listening. It's fine. Don't worry. Boney, we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. Thank you. There he was. Odyssey MLB insider Brett Boon insider calls again presented by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. As the right product for you, call click ranger.com or just stop by. All right, he says the divisions in play. It's a little different like the Astros chasing down the Mariners versus the Padres trying to chase down the Dodgers in terms of, you know, like payroll and resources. Dodgers have more than the Mariners do. You kind of expect the Mariners to collapse against the Astros charge you, the Mariners chasing the Astros. Yeah, it's a little different story, but he's got confidence that the Padres have a shot at it. We'll talk a little bit more about that right after a check of traffic here on 97.3. The fam. All right. Well, let's just just look at it from a clinical standpoint here. Padres after the win last night, Paulie, or five and a half games behind the Dodgers. Okay. Five and a half. They win even one of their remaining four games against the Dodgers. They take the season series and would have the tiebreaker. Obviously, if you want to catch him, you got to probably win three of those four that would get you two games closer. And then you've got the rest of the games that you're playing the rest of the season. Another 48 to 50 games for both teams that you'd have to outplay the Dodgers by a couple of games, two and a half games the rest of the way. Is that possible? Well, looking at the, the remaining schedules, I can tell you the Dodgers have a tougher schedule than the Padres. Dodgers still have to play three against the Phillies for at the Brewers. They've got three against the Orioles. They've got three against the Guardians, Padres did well against those two teams, can the Dodgers match? They got four at the Atlanta Braves. They do have some easier series. They got the Rockies. They got the, they got the Marlins and they got the, the A's still to come. But for the most part, their schedule is a little bit tougher. The Padres have still their games against the White Sox. Still have three more against the Marlins who are absolutely decimated. They have to take care of business against the Rockies in the remaining two series the way they didn't do. All of this, of course, is predicated on the Padres doing what they couldn't do in the first half, taking care of business against teams like the Angels and the Rockies, beating the teams. You are absolutely supposed to catch the Dodgers by going 500 against the White Sox and the Marlins. You need to win maybe all of those or five out of six of those to have a chance. But honestly, the man is there that the Padres could do this. And by the way, they've won 11 of their last 12 against teams with losing records. Four game series against the Mets is going to be huge. Sure. That's for the wild card. That's huge. The games against the Pirates huge for the wild card. If you catch the division, you got to beat up on those bad teams when you've got the opportunity because the Dodgers do have a tough schedule. We'll come back. We got all the calls of the walkoff by Donovan Solano and the incorporated still come here on the fan. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family, Homes.com. If you've done your homework, it's the most anticipated WNBA season in history and you know what that means. Court is back in session. 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