Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

Sam Levitt On Padres Trade, 7-2 Roadtrip, And More!

Sammy Levitt, Padres pre and postgame show host, joined Ben & Woods as he does each and every Monday morning! Listen here as Sammy gives us his thoughts on the Padres trading for Jason Adam over the weekend, what he thinks AJ Preller still may do in the next day and a half, and MUCH more!

Duration:: 18m
Broadcast on:: 29 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. 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. Sammy, enjoy the day off today, because tomorrow, going to be a busy one, a pre-game show just hours after the trade deadline, it's the calm before the storm. It's not an off day, it's not a day off for Sammy, it's an off day for the Padres, but rest assured, if there's a trade that goes down, Adam's going to have Sammy do it. Oh, he was reacting at like 5.30 in the morning, I think, yesterday to the Jason Adam trade. I woke up to a video on my phone, I usually get up pretty early, Sammy's already reacting to trades before I even got up on a Sunday. Well, you know the drill, the moment there is breaking Padres news that I get a text from your friend Adam Kluget, what about like 7.15am? Hey, can you make a video as you're getting ready for everything else you got to do at 9.35 for the pre-game show? But guess what, I sat there, I got it done and we got the video out, so you know me, I'm always a very good soldier. I think he did not even text me this time. Do you think Adam, I know, do you think it crossed his mind, should I call Benner Woods, I know it's like 7.15 on Sunday morning? Would he have, would he have wanted us to come in? No, I'll just put a video together, like a reaction video, like I would have been asleep if he had called me. I actually was still asleep at like 7.15 on Sunday morning, just pretty late for me. I was up, but I was at Bose Baseball, like I was getting him ready for baseball practice, I don't know. I was so busy this weekend that I don't know that I would have had the time, but you know certainly like the move Sammy and you know helps. It helps somebody make the astute point of hey man, you know you get a guy like Jason Adam, that typically should mean that now Robert Suarez doesn't necessarily need to always be counted on for, you know, 4 out saves. Which would be great because you do worry about wear and tear on these guys as the season goes on. Yeah, I think when trades like this are made and it's as steep of a price as the Padres had to pay for Jason Adam. I think there's a lot of going to each of the extremes of the sides of the argument, right? Either it's absolutely what they needed and you got a win right now or it's the other way and people think they got fleeced. And I think the truth, you know, there's some truth in all of it, right? Like obviously just from the purely 2024 perspective, the Padres desperately needed a guy like Jason Adam, a high leverage guy with great stuff, swing and miss, that they could add into the trio of more home in Strata and Suarez and it lengthens the bullpen. You're right. It takes some pressure off of Robert Suarez. Maybe it takes some pressure off your starting pitchers who, you know, a couple of them are already above their career high in innings. So it makes a ton of sense going and getting this guy. Was it a steep price? Yeah. Have the Padres, you know, got rid of a lot of what their depth was in the last few months in the minor leagues between the rise trade, the cease trade. And now this trade, yeah, those things can all be true at once. But this front office, an AJ Preller, has shown time and time again that when they're in it, they will err on the side of being aggressive. And this was another aggressive move to get a piece that they really, really needed. And look, I understand that the price was high. That's partially just what the market is right now. Look at the trades right now across the game. And even for some relievers like Hunter Harvey or the trade for Carlos Estebes, the Phillies gave up maybe two future major league starting pitchers for a rental in Estebes. And Adam is two years of control. Will Dylan, let's go maybe be a front line starter one day? Maybe. Who knows? But, you know, there's a strong, strong argument to be made that you've got the team you've got with stars on it that are in their primes. You're right in this thing. And you're in win now mode and you got to keep operating like that for the most part. I understand that I do. Sam, do you agree that there has to be a starting pitch you're coming by tomorrow? Because the alternative is more out of measure or a Johnny Brito who's had some, what, a tightness in his forearm. I mean, there's just, there's really no other options, right? I mean, you can't, you're going to have to need that fifth starter, even if Joe Musgrove comes back pretty soon, then you're, you're counting on Randy Vasquez and how many innings he's got left. You're already worried about Michael King's innings. Well, and you're worried about Musgrove's pitch counter 50 years ago. Even if it's a number five guy that can just chew up some innings. I feel like there has to be a starter coming by tomorrow at three o'clock, right? If you would have asked me 24 hours ago, or I should say a little bit more than that, before the trade for Adam, I would have said absolutely. I can envision a scenario where they get through tomorrow afternoon. And there's not a starter added, but I'll tell you what. And again, I'm just speculating here, but when you heard AJ Preller after the trade talk about, you know, he was asked pretty point blank, you know, about adding a starter. And the first thing he did was start talking about the internal options they have. And again, are we going to read into, are we going to read into that answer from AJ? I don't think so, right? I mean, he never says much about any trade he's going to make for any of them. That could be poker, you know, poker face as well. Absolutely, no, absolutely. And I agree with that. But with that said, once you start looking at the prices for some of this stuff, I mean, if Jason Adam cost what he cost, what's the starting pitcher going to cost? Unless, unless, you know, they go outside the rental market and they do something really big. And that's a crochet, that's a scuba. Are they willing to pay the price for one of those guys, which may have to include one of their top two prospects? I don't know the answer to that. What I do wonder, and again, I'm just speculating here, what I do wonder is this, you know, with Joe Musgrove pitching on Tuesday in Arizona is going to pitch in a controlled scenario, you know, basically a simulated game against Mariners minor league hitters. You know, he talked after the game yesterday and, you know, throughout the idea, the next day he would pitch would be Sunday, you know, if the Padres won and I look, I don't know how much this is Joe being optimistic versus reality. But he throughout the idea that, hey, if he was good to go for three innings on Sunday, you know, and they had a fresh bullpen, could they look to do something like that? Or could he come back, you know, after making another rehab start, come back at four innings. And, you know, look, is there a scenario where they're kind of looking at it with, you know, Joe, maybe on the precipice of returning in some capacity and saying, maybe we can get through this and get through the regular season with the guys. We've got maybe that seems a little ambitious because I think we all agreed, you know, a couple of days ago that they needed a starting pitcher in a really bad way. Look, I still would be surprised if they don't add a starter. But meanwhile, we're almost 24 hours away from the deadline. It hasn't happened yet. And, man, those prices are going to be really high for anybody as we've seen. But I think, you know, talking to Sammy Levin here on Ben and Woods this morning, I think teams absolutely can overplay their hands. I do. And I think it's the needle that you have to thread. I mean, if you're the Colorado Rockies and you're asking the moon back for Cal Quantrell, you're probably not going to get it. And if you continue to ask for the moon for Cal Quantrell up until the deadline, you're probably not going to get it. Would Cal Quantrell help to Steve? Yes. Tyler Anderson, you know, shouldn't take two top 10 prospects to get a Tyler Anderson. So I think it goes both ways. I think teams can absolutely overplay their hand. Just like A.J. Preller has hyped up prospects that other teams are willing to take. And take where you look at it and you go, "Wow, I didn't know that guy had that much value." And that happens all the time. So I think in the interest of sometimes getting a deal done, you know, you may overpay a little bit. But these guys, if they want to move these guys, they're going to have to take one of the deals that they get. Right. And look, I think there is a reality about the situation this team is in right now, okay? They've got big time contracts, guys, and they're primed. They've got Dylan Sees here right now. They've got Michael King here right now. Look, the situation from what we've always thought over the last few years that has not changed, despite, you know, the farm system getting rebuilt and the necessity for having younger players, like a Jackson Merrill, who don't cost a lot and are under control. Yeah, you need those guys. But the window is right now. That has not changed through all of this. And meanwhile, you've got a team that is right in the thick of it. I think we all agree, if they can get there, they have a real chance to make some noise. They really, really do. So, yeah, look, they're living in kind of, you know, an interesting scenario that a lot of teams don't necessarily live in where, you know, they typically tend to go one way or the other. You know, I don't blame the Padres and AJ Preller for maybe having to overpay to go get something they really, really need for a team that is capable of winning right now. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? 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Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. 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 and 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. Sami, I don't expect leo Dallas DeVries or Ethan Salas to be traded. Even... I mean, we saw some reports this weekend, including in the raised trade, that they went for Taj Bradley. I'm assuming that the reason it didn't work out is that the raise said, "Okay, but we need one of those guys at least." And the Padres are saying no to those players. And I'm okay with that. I don't know that Ethan Salas and/or DeVries is going to be a star, but I know there's a lot of potential that those guys could be well above average major league baseball players for at least 12 years of control coming up. And I'm willing to gamble on that. And if it means that you only get a fifth starter here at the deadline, I can live with that. That's my take. Me too. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I think where I land on it is I'm in the mindset of, "Hey, you've got to try to improve this team any way you can without trading those two guys." And so to me, everybody else should be available. Whatever you have to do beyond trading those two, I'm okay with that. And that's what yesterday's move felt like to me, right? Okay, we're going to overpay for a reliever who does have two years left of control, but he is a reliever. He has a steep price. But you know what? We're going to try our best to make this team as good as it can possibly be and get to October and we'll take it from there. And yeah, I'm with you. I think if you're in the camp of people like you, Ben, who have a mindset of, "I'm cool with whatever," as long as you don't touch those, in degrees and salads, then I'm really okay with that strategy. And I think you just have to accept that. Yeah. The cupboard may be a little bit bare beyond those two heading into the off season. But yeah, no, I'm very much also in that mindset right now. I don't blame them for going that way if that's the way they go. Sammy, as always, I really appreciate it. I know you'll have your finger on the pulse of what's going on with the San Diego Padres, even if we don't hear from you until the pregame showed tomorrow. You're going to be all over on social media. Give them a follow at Sammy Lev and we will talk to you again next week, if not sooner. And don't forget Wednesday, the roundtable. Are you in for woods? Oh, thank you for coming in and filling in. That's right. As Sammy mentioned, this week's roundtable is going to be a day early on Wednesday at 10 o'clock, a special wrapping up the trade deadline roundtable. So join Annie and Elston Gwen and Chris and Sammy Levitt in for Stephen Woods from Wednesday from 10 to 11 o'clock for this week's roundtable roundtable. You've made a lot of people very happy, Sammy, me being the first. Thank you for subbing in. I really appreciate it and I will have a Mai Tai or a Pina Colada in your honor. Which one would you choose? Which one would you choose, Sammy? I'm a Mai Tai guy. I love a Pina Colada. Me too, but I love a Pina Colada. I used to have a virgin Pina Colada when I was younger. Yeah, 100%. The list tastes like Suntan lotion. My favorite. What do you feel about getting caught in the rain? Oh, God. Sorry, Sammy. Caught in the rain. I assume this has to be with a prank call. Oh, no, it's that song, the Pina Colada song. Oh, I'm getting caught. I got it. It was just a bad joke. I can't wait for my flight. You guys have a week of that, by the way. I think you can stream the honesty app on the plane if you get the... Can I? Yeah, if you get the internet, so... Oh, I think we can listen to the whole show while you fly. No, I can't. Thanks, Sammy. Thanks, Sammy. Thanks, Sammy. I'm not going to. 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. 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. [MUSIC] Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With north sides and bouillon as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. Nord Taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Visit Nord.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home-cooked weeknight dinners. It's not fast food, but it's so good. 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