Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
8am Hour - Are De Vries And Salas TRULY Off-Limits?
Ben & Woods start the 8am hour by reacting to a video that was sent to Ben last night from listener Steve who INSISTS Ben give a message to Padres manager Mike Shildt. Then the guys read what ESPN's Jeff Passan had to say about AJ Preller and the Padres as we close in on the MLB trade deadline, and the guys have a lengthy conversation about what Preller will do in the next week, and whether or not top prospects Ethan Salas and Leo De Vries are TRULY off-limits to other teams. Listen here!
- Duration:
- 1h 1m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 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. Hey Fantasy Football fans, do you want to be the owner who was doing a crime session the night before the draft? I didn't think so. You need to start your prep now. This is Faraz from Upper Hand Fantasy. Zach and I are here to get you ready for your Fantasy Football Drafts with insights and advice from sleepers to bust, we've got you covered, and give it the upper hand on your friends. Today is the day to start getting ready for the draft, so join us and stay ahead of the competition. Follow and listen to Upper Hand Fantasy on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You don't just live in your home, you live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score. Homes.com. We've done your homework. All right, we're halfway home on a Tuesday, Ben in Woods, 97-3, the fan home of your San Diego Padres back in action tonight. Thank God. It's in there watching the Dodgers last night and the Royals just dying from up bow. We sat down to there and he goes, "I'm really bummed." He said, "I'm really sad that the Padres aren't on." I said, "I know. Me too." It's just a part of the fabric of the family. Question. Now, do you, a Padres off day or even like an afternoon game, morning game, and as it is going to be on Thursday? Do you watch just nothing but baseball that night or do you take a break from the baseball? No, I watch baseball. Pop on a movie or anything like that. No, I watch baseball. There's a game on and really, honestly, the thing that got me into throwing a game on last night, I was so tired from my elite dad day. You see, they have the MLB network or the MLB pass. Yeah, MLB pass. So I've only got, if ESPN or MLB network doesn't have a game, it's not on. Yeah, so I saw Bobby Whit get hit single short of the cycle and I went, "Ooh, I'm gonna run over to the Royals game and see if there's any retaliation in the next inning," and much to my surprise as a San Diego Padres, and there was, there was, and it was refreshing to see. And I know him. Sure, Bobby Whit is glad his teammates have his back. It's probably a pretty cool feeling. We just talked to Jesse Agler about the chemistry on this team being better than the chemistry last year, but sometimes I feel like you feel like it still may be lacking a little bit, like a team, like the Royals, when they respond, that is sometimes viewed as a sign of good chemistry. Well, and I do think the way that we responded against the Nationals, I think that that was a really good, like, sign with the San Diego Padres. Hey, here's my question, though. There are some exceptions, but I think very few. It generally, the teams with the best records always seem to say the chemistry is great when things are going well. Teams with bad records, you rarely hear. Yeah, we may be in last place 42 games out, but man, the chemistry on this team is fantastic. No, I mean, I've seen it. Is the chemistry creating the record or does the record create the chemistry? It's the chicken and the egg, certainly, but I do, you know, I do good teams. The opposite. And teams are like, yeah, we all hate each other. Like there's terrible. Oh, that's happened. That's happened on multiple occasions in the history of baseball, certainly. But you don't have to all be best buds to win ball games, but I don't think it hurts you. Ultimately, some guys are not chemistry guys, just in fact, I would say the majority of people are just going to go with the flow and follow a handful, maybe even just like one or two guys who set the chemistry for a clubhouse. And that's how it goes. And you can't really change that. I'm not a chemistry guy. What's is the chemistry guy on this show? And I think we have good chemistry, but if it was up to me to set the chemistry, the chemistry here would be horrible. That's true. I'll give you, I'm going to agree with you on that. I'm not a chemistry guy. I know this. You know, I've learned it over the years. You know, I've learned it. That wasn't always that way. I'm a grinder. Yeah. You're not giving yourself enough credit than you are a chemistry guy. You're a little bit different. You're not the leader per se, but you're, you provide chemistry by being a genuinely good dude. Correct. You go along with everything. Yes. You have trust. You're not just like a sheep. Like you, you buy in a little sheep guy kind of, you know, I'll go along with most ideas. Yeah. I don't push back. Is that good for chemistry? I'm sorry. It's great for me. I know it's great for chemistry. I know it's great for chemistry. Buying is great for chemistry. So I buy in and I bought in early and I'm like, you know what? Let's ride the, let's ride the woods chemistry train and see where it takes us and it's taken us some good places. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to say I'm the chemistry guy on this show. It's so funny too, because you, I, I've just learned this from talking to people that played in the bigs and in the minors and how they came up. And I guess I didn't ever really realize just how important it is. And there's, there's shades of it, certainly, but I, I was talking to my buddy that played in the minors and he was just a big fan of like, no, we all have to hang out. Everyone's going to hang out. We got, and I'm like, bro, we don't. And once I learn like, oh yeah, that, that gets you, gets you tighter. You're more willing to, to have somebody's back and having good times together certainly helps. But actually, I would say, and you know, just, just to be completely honest, at our last station, the chemistry wasn't as good. Right. But I, I do better in a situation like that. I can ignore the bad, yeah, you did. And just continue to do what I do. You're much more affected by it. Go much more. It bothered you more on a day to day basis that you didn't have the kind of chemistry you wanted. Right. Oh, 100%. And, and it was definitely, definitely needed at that time. And I, I was more of the just kind of put my head down and try to be a, you know, a sheep at that time. I, they made me feel like I was very lucky to be there, you know? So, this has been, this has certainly been a big confidence boost to me. This program over on this radio station, working for a guy like Adam too, who kind of lets you do what you want to do. He trusts you. And the one great thing about Woods is between the two of us, you are the much more approachable person. There's a way more requests and comments and people who just kind of reach out to you with stories, texts, tweets, tell, tell them about their lives because that's who you are. You're, you're just kind of open and inviting when it comes to that. I get much fewer when it comes to like just the unsolicited type of comments. But, but when you get them, I would say that they are elite. I. So, Holly, Johnny says because you don't respond, which is all that keeps me up at night. The thought that I didn't have, like I didn't go and thank, I didn't thank every person for wishing me a happy birthday on Instagram, but I hearted every single message. I didn't say thank you so much. Thank you so much. Now I used to, I used to, but now I just give you the heart. Thank you. Thank you. I did see it. I do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It took me, it took me hours. And it felt so good to have so many people wish me a happy birthday. It was great. I take advantage of if you don't follow each other, then it's like a request, a message request. Right. And they don't know if you saw it or not, and you can kind of pick a chance where you want to reply. But when, when Ben gets them, they are, I, you know, and I don't reply as much as you do. And sometimes I feel bad about that because I really do appreciate when tier ones take the time to the, you just send it, no, I do. I do. But I just feel like when you get into a conversation with someone, you can get in the weeds and okay, now I've got 10 of these and I'm going to respond to all of them and get in long threads. And all of a sudden, you know, like I've lost all my time and my day, you know, I just don't have the ability to dive into all of those responses all the time. So yeah, I do respond way less occasionally. I do sometimes I feel like maybe I shouldn't have done that there, but you know, I, I tend to not respond as much as you do. Yeah. Welcome to my nightmare. Good, good or bad. I don't know the answer to it. Well, you've, you've heard from this gentleman, um, yeah, a couple of times. We talked about it actually a month or so ago. Polly doesn't remember. He might not have been. You may not have been. I was out of town early last month and then I was sick later in the month. I, so you sent this over and go, what am I, what am I watching? You're like, oh, it's so, it's like, I have no idea. No idea what you're talking about. Yeah. I just wasted two and a half minutes of my life. His name is Steve. He's a music teacher, a local music teacher and Padres fan. And he has been relentless in his social media and emails to me with all of you. One obsession. And that is he wants to get a message to Mike Shilt about how the Padres could be better as a team in their bunting skills. And he does, he's not just a fan who says, Hey, you need to be better at this. He has, he has a plan. He's laid it out for me in extensive emails and posts about his system of how it could work. And generally I brought it up on the radio once, but I've kind of like most of the time not responded and ignored it. That does not deter Steve who has taken it to the next step. And I got this tweet yesterday from, from Steve and you know what, sometimes persistence pays off because you get your wish, you know, and I said to him, you know what, sir, I don't, I don't agree with you on, on your opinion about bunting, but you are Don Quixote tilting at these windmills. Yes. And I just have to at least tip my hat to your dedication. So this is just. So the first one was an email. Yeah. It was long detail, he had a whole game where like, if you get one down, you get five points and it's a whole, it was like 45 minutes a day. He wants to the Padres to spend a lot of time on their bunting practice. Right. So he's, he's taken it to the next level. Here is a, I've been Mr. Steve Bruce. I'd like to address this video to Mr. Mike Shilt. This is Steve from Coronado. I want to talk about something to Mike Shilt, a very easy process to add a skill to the San Diego Padres lineup. So we can go on and get into the playoffs, win the playoff series. Pause. He's added a graphic. playing in the world. Padres must add this skill to win 2024 World Series top nine. Yes. So you say, so you say it and then you put the exact words, like closed caps. He's sitting, he's got a microphone, he's got keyboards to his behind his left stays there. There's open captioning. Yeah, he's got a guitar back there. Amps, all kinds of music equipment continues Steve. This year and when it, when there's a fundamental skill the Padres are lacking in. I want to preface this by saying I have won a sports championship as a player. I'm also a professional music teacher in the performing arts. I've seen my students get standing ovations performing in front of audiences. I want to address this weakness of the Padres and how to fix it. Every day for five minutes, each player gets in the batting cage with the pitching machine and someone to grade them on 10 pitches, 10 pitches. I want to take five minutes to grade them on their ability to lay down a bunt. They get 10 pitches to make it easy. You can come up with any formula that you want, but to make it easy to do this every day, one day of the 10, 102 fast balls from the pitching machine. The next day, a different pitch. The next day, a different pitch and on those 10 pitches, each hitter is graded on whether they can lay down the suicide squeeze, which is about 10 to 12 to 15 feet ahead of home plate or the sacrifice squeeze. Usually that's to the right side and between the first baseman and the teacher towards the first baseman kind of thing. So that would work. You would get the grades. You would have that. You would have that chart. So when you're in a playoff game and it's the ninth inning and you need that run from third base with less than two outs, you know who can lay down that bunt and you can pull off a suicide squeeze to win a playoff game or the World Series. Please get started on this as early as August. Thank you. All right. Here's your number one Steve. I don't think that they play that whole thing for Mike Shelton Friday. I dare you. I double triple dog dare you. I'll give you five hundred dollars, both of you, if you play that for Michael. Now I will put my headphones and I will run them out of the room. I can't be here for it because I can't see it. I can't see it. I can't be a party. You have to tell me how it goes. Can you guys do it? When I get into Hawaii next Friday, I'll give you guys, I'll Venmo you each five hundred dollars if you do it and you can't do any preface. You can't say, Hey, this is a bit Mike. We got something for you. I think you're going to like it and you play it and you sit back and let it go. I'll give you each five hundred dollars. The uncomfortableness. Anthony butcher is in for five hundred and you guys to be twenty thousand. This is like Howard. This is Gary's love tape. You guys to make twenty thousand dollars each. So I, Oh God. So the thing is Steve and look, you know where I stand on bunting. I'm fine bunting for a hit. I don't like giving away outs. Yeah, man. A safety squeeze or a suicide squeeze in the right time, a couple of times a season. Fantastic. I don't want to rain on your parade. They do practice bunting. They all do. I mean, honestly, anytime you've ever and I've watched a ton of professional batting practice. The first two, three pitches, you lay down a button, and I've seen Zander do it. I've seen Manny do it. I've seen Todd. He do it. I've seen him all do it. They all do it. So they are practicing bunting. What they're probably not doing is they're probably not devoting a ton of time to it. A ton. Now we've heard from jerks and pro far, he said, Bunting is a part of my game. I think he bunts at odd times. I think he's been successful at it. Playing for hit, always cool, in this day, the way that the Padres are built, Ben, they're not the three true outcome team. They're not anymore. So they are able to get hits and string hits together. And I think a bunt is okay in certain times with the right personnel. What you don't want to ever happen is your two hole, your three hole, your four hole guy, lay in one down to give away and out in the eighth inning or something. I think, you know, Steve is right. This makes perfect on anything and they do. They do work on bunting. I think what's missing here is, first of all, if you spent even five minutes on each player, thirteen position players each spending five minutes, that's 70 minutes of cage time just on bunting a batting practice. If I'm not mistaken, it's about 45 minutes total for all the players out on the field before the game. You can take early batting practice, but you're adding another, you know, 140% of work on top of what you're already doing for your team there. So realistically, the time commitment is not during a long 162 game season to do that every day is not going to happen. The other part is you looked at the numbers and you can make the argument that the Padres may be the best bunting team in baseball right now, maybe too good for what you really want them in the year 2024 here, but they are among the leaders in successful sacrifice runs, bun hits. They have a lot of guys who actually bunt quite well on their roster. So you might not be focusing on the right thing if you're spending more time on bunting practice. And when I look at the San Diego Padres in the year 2024, the very bottom of the list is you guys need to get better at bunting, honestly, like it's really, if there's a list and it is an important skill to have, and as somebody that was always terrified to hit, I was a really good bunter. But I don't want my two, my three, my four laying down sacrifice buns to move a guy from first to second with nobody out, I just, I, they're in the three hole, the four hole, the two hole for a reason. Those guys have the ability to do not only hit the ball out of the ballpark, but hit a ball in a gap, score run from first. It really, I'm not, again, I'm not saying there's no time in place for it, but you're devoting an awful lot of time and energy to a skill that is of which, again, you're kind of your third, I think, in baseball in sacrifice buns, you behind only like the Chicago white socks, there's a reason that they bond. There's a reason the best teams in baseball, the Phillies blah, blah, blah, like they're all at the very bottom of, of sacrifice bunting. So you know, we've addressed it, Steve, we've talked about it, like, I feel like I'm Andy Dufrein in the Shawshank Redemption. I now consider the matter closed. Now you're going to send me two videos a week. So Mike, here's this, it's, it's not, and I will add one caveat for the tier ones who all said the same thing. You're a music teacher. If you could do a song about bunting, we'll put that right to the top of the top of the line, Steve. This song that comes in from Steve with the keyboards, guitars, everything we see in the video, begging you, if you can, if you can produce an original composition about bunting with all your musical equipment, we will play that for you. And maybe even for Mike shilt as well. Thank you for your contribution. I do need the, I do need the song. But don't be a, oh, can't do that. Hunt is a good one. Yeah. Hunt. Yes. Yes. Runt. Runt. Don't be a runt. Bunt. Oh, okay. It's funny because a lot of the players that are more like runs, like David Eckstein, they were good monsters. 100%. Tyler Wade. He's got a runt, but you know what I'm saying. We'll come back. The phone lines are open, actually, if you want to react to that or anything else. If you guys have any drills, if you guys have any drills that they need to be working on. Go ahead. 3, 3, 2, 8, 0, 97, 3, Ben and Woods back after traffic, you're a 97, 3, the fan. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score. Homes.com. We've done your homework. Hey, fantasy football fans. This is Zach from Upper Hand Fantasy. You don't want an embarrassing tattoo just because you lost a bet in your fantasy football league, right? If you do, I suggest a mermaid holding a football, but let's avoid that altogether. Bros and I are here to get you ready for your fantasy football drafts with insights and advice from sleepers to busts we've got you covered to give you the upper hand on your friends. Start your fantasy football prep now, join us and stay ahead of the competition. Follow and listen to Upper Hand Fantasy on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Nice. Today's episode is sponsored by Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd Wallet'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 Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Jeff Passen checking in this morning on the Padres trade deadline possibilities. That right. Yes. Like me to give you this little right up here, a little nugget and blurb about every team heading to the trade deadline this morning, I do like nuggets. So according to Jeff Passen, here's what he had to say about the San Diego Padres adding within reason, there's plenty to like about the Padres. They can score runs. Their starting pitching is mostly stabilized. The back end of their bullpen with Robert Suarez, Adrian Morihone, and Jeremiah Estrada is a festival of nasty. Wow. That's a big bug for an Ando Tetis Jr. out with leg injury, Luis Arise injured thumb could be a real problem and at 52 and 50, they've not performed like a team worth adding to at the deadline. GM AJ Preller is doing what he always does, patrolling the landscape for any potential deal. But it's with a diminished farm system, whose best prospects, 17 year old shortstop Leo de Vries and 18 year old Catrice and Salas are off limits. And others, left-hander Robbie Snelling, right-hander Dylan Lesco, have taken steps backward. As long as the teens aren't available, San Diego isn't getting a crochet level player. And while depth moves and the return of Joe Musgrover, you Darvish would help, it's unclear whether they'd be enough to separate the Padres from the NL wild card pack. Guys, starting it off so good. And then it kind of turned into a bit of a disappointment at the end. Can you say Ben saying big butt, by the way, in there? Not a festival of nasty. Festival. Take them both. Take them both. Yes. Yes. That's good writing there. Festival of nasty. That didn't sound that didn't sound like he has much. Well, I think. All right. Let's see. The to me, the biggest takeaway, at least according to Jeff Passon's reporting or that de Vries and Salas are off limits that stood out to me as well. Yeah. Not would take a huge deal to move them would take the right player with multiple years of control would take, you know, to rake scuba. No, it's they are off limits according to Jeff Passon. Don't ask. We're not trading them. Yeah. Is that true? I don't know. I feel like if Baltimore was like, you know, we're not really feeling Adley Ruchman. We'll just trade you straight up for you. No one's totally off limits. Nobody is truly, truly, truly untouchable or off limits. Yeah. It's going to be. It's going to be interesting. I think the Dodgers are about to go ham. I really do. They're going to go ham. I, here's the thing with the Dodgers. What do they need more than anything else right now? Well, well, they need a few things. They need a few things, but I, they need, they need the funny thing is with the pitching they have coming back allegedly, they need guys at the bottom of their order that can hit. Now, I know Gavin Lux just won player of the week, but it's been, it's been a slog for him. Mookie's going to be coming back. So there's a bat and a pretty good one. So I guess when it comes to the Dodgers, I don't feel like there's any point in them trading for someone who they don't think is going to be one of their top three pitchers in the playoffs. Right. But it would have to be a scooble. Who's out there? I mean, other than those two, and maybe they'll go after them, but let's say, all right. So Glass now comes back this week. He's healthy. Kershaw is coming back. Unless you get one of those two guys, adding a fifth or six picture for the dots anyway, they know that they don't need, they don't need a guy who's not going to be even on their playoff roster. Which is my never pitch in the playoffs, which is why James Paxton was expendable for them. It's either a top, it's either top shelf or what's the point if you're the LA Dodgers. Now for the Padres, it's different. They need to get into the playoffs. They need depth. They need guys to fill some starts the rest of the way. There could be real value in a fourth, fifth type starter for the San Diego Padres worth the Dodgers. Yeah, if they lose a couple of those starts because they don't have enough pitching depth, so what now there are six games up instead of eight games up, doesn't make much sense to them to give up future prospects for something they don't really need right now. Yeah, if they're, if they go, they're going to go, it's going to be big, right? It's going to be, it's going to be a crochet in a Luis Robert or something, right? Like it's going to be a Rosarina, you know, it's going to be someone that, that, that Paxton mentioned, you know, says they're all in, but that little Reese Robert and Randy Rosarina were two of the names he mentioned. Yeah, so it'll be, it's going to be, they'll be fortified that I can tell you. You don't have an off season like they had and say, ah, we'll just, we'll roll with Max Muncie when he comes back and we'll roll with, with the guys that we've got coming back. No, no, no chance. I told you that three months ago, there's, these, these guys are going all in. They got to find somebody that gets them over the hump in the playoffs and, you know, listen, if the, if the top of their order doesn't get it done in the playoffs, they're going to be another, you know, one and done essentially because they're a top heavy team just like we were last year. The only difference is they'll cruise into the playoffs. We did not last year, ah, but yeah, so they'll look for them to make a pretty gnarly splash that's going to sting a little bit. All right. What do you think about, ah, de Vries and Salas being untouchable off limits according to Jeff Passen, we will get to some phone calls when we come out next. If you're online, stay there, eight, three, three, two, eight, zero, ninety seven, three, more bed and woods on the way on San Diego's number one sports station, ninety seven, three the fan. Well, after we just heard, ah, Jeff Passen, right, that, ah, Leo DeVries and Ethan Salas are off limits, get a very different opinion from someone else who covers the pond rays even closer. I'll tell you what Dennis Lynn from the athletic predicts will happen here at the trade deadline and take your phone calls, eight, three, three, two, eight, zero, ninety seven, three, it's been a woods back right after traffic here on ninety seven, three the fan. So the athletic and their baseball team reporters all put together a little blur with a prediction of what they think the team they cover will do at the trade deadline, which is again is one week from today and woods, Dennis Lynn writing, ah, the pot rays land Garrett crochet, rendering Leo Dallas DeVries in the process, general manager, AJ Preller has been after crochet for at least a couple of months, apparently undeterred by workload concerns surrounding the white socks all store with stiff competition from such teams as the Dodgers and Orioles, pot rays will need to fork over premium props, highly regarded teenage short snuck and headline a requisite package. So a very different viewpoint on what the Padres may or may not do in the next week. Richard, uh, takes in the, uh, chat that's not me being sarcastic, which I usually am, but T. N. says the problem with keeping, uh, them, they're going to be in them in MLB around twenty, twenty seven in between then and now C's king pro far Suarez, Kim, arise and Higgie will all be free agents, pot rays are in need to be in wind now mode, but the argument for keeping them, if you trade for crochet and others, it doesn't work out. The future is absolutely toast with no sign of return until the Machado Bogart's deals are over. I don't get that sense anymore, T. N though that that is the window, the window we've been hearing about for many, many years and it's been open. It's been open a crack. It's been open a ton and wasn't capitalized on one thing they've been able to do is is load up on draft choices that other teams like and they've been able to get the Dylan ceases of the world think about how many guys have cycled through this place in the last six years of us being a show. I mean, you name it, they have always, he's always found a way to add starters, taking chances on Waka, Lugo, you know, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not as worried about five years from now because there's no guarantee I'll even be here. You know, anybody, it just, I do think that they are in wind now mode as I think most teams should try to be in as much as you possibly can. There was a chart that was going around, I think Enos shared it last week. It was, if I'm not mistaken, war generated from your own draft picks over the last 10 years. And so that really correlates with AJ Preller's tenure as general manager. And what stood out on that chart and it was also correlated with wind percentage of those teams. In respect, it was a pretty kind of general graph. The more war you generated from your draft picks, the better your wind percentage. So the teams that were down in the bottom left corner didn't draft well, didn't win many games. And then all the way to the top right corner teams that drafted really well and won a lot of games. And then there were two teams that stood out because the two teams that by far and away had the most war from their draft picks were the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, like there was a big gap between them and everybody else. But the Padres were kind of more in the bottom right corner. They were the only team that drafted really well that didn't translate that into a great winning percentage like the Dodgers did. So yes, you're right. AJ Preller in some ways is a top three general manager in the game doing way better than his colleagues when it comes to a massing talent. But in some ways, he's a bottom three general manager because he takes that talent and doesn't translate it to where you really have to and that is a winning record and playoff appearances and doing what the Dodgers have done. What's more valuable? I mean, I guess ultimately winning is the most valuable thing. But you're almost if you ever if you ever went away from AJ Preller, you're almost certainly getting way worse at the draft game because you're already right at the top with the very best in baseball. There are times that deals come through and I go, I look at it and I go, I can't believe that they wanted this guy, this guy, this guy, and I mean, I was, I saw a little blurb yesterday Motorola and Marcy yesterday, oh, they're in Miami now. Oh, for nine, eight strikeouts. I mean, again, like you just never know what another team sees in a player. Some teams are great at developing players. We've been good at adding pieces that have helped us at least compete, you know, and stay, I guess keep eyeballs on him. He's not a great job at that. I mean, there's no question about it. The fever pitch for the San Diego potteries has never been higher and it's certainly a lot of fun to cover. I just, I try not to let myself get bogged down in what is this going to look like in five years, because again, if he's, if he's still here in five years, you have no idea what it's going to look like. None whatsoever because he continues to make moves when he feels he needs to. Not all of them are good. Not all of them are great. JJ Cooper, who is the editor of baseball America, he's really, really good follow on Twitter, by the way, he's talking about, he says, it's trade deadline time to celebrate. I put together a team of the best prospects acquired at the deadline since 2015. Feel free to let me know who I'm too high or low on. He says, some really smart teams have gotten fleeced at the deadline. The Dodgers traded away Yordon Alvarez and O'Neill Cruz for a pair of relievers. That is the risk of going for it. But the odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. The odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. If AJ Preller had a t-shirt, that's what his t-shirt would say. It would say, the odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. So where would the Padres be if they traded Jackson Merrill with that? Yeah. Sensibility. Which people, people were asking for Jackson Merrill and he didn't. He didn't. I mean, again, special players will, will always be special players, whether on your team or somebody else. Is Salas a special player? That's a three. It's a special player who can't be traded. AJ has maybe already made the decision on one or both of them. And if he says to himself, these guys are too special to trade and they're off limits, then they're, they're off limits. It's up to AJ to decide whether those guys are special enough that he can't be tempted even by, you know, a couple of years of control for a pitcher. Because ultimately, if, if they pan out, either or both of them, you're getting, I mean, if both of them pan out as, you know, above average solid big leaguers, that's 12 years at least that you control two major big league talents. What would you trade right now for 12 years of great big leaguers? Anything. Any team would trade anything for that. It's the most valuable thing you can have in baseball. Jackson Merrill is now one of the more valuable commodities in baseball. He's got years and years of control. He's already on ground. He's all started. He's all started. Yeah. Those two guys could be like that or they could be like those guys that you don't regret trading because they never pan out. You got to get it right. You got to identify. Yeah. No question. No question about it. So even the great teams make some real, real bonehead decisions. AJ's volume has just been so much more, I think, than any other GM. And I guess then once you have that reputation where there's smoke, there's fire. That's more than just a reputation. That's just, that's how he does business. Now you can like it. You can love it. You're always talking about a man. You are always talking about the San Diego Padres, but every national media, everybody right now, every national media show is saying, you can't count out AJ, right? Everyone can't count out AJ Preller to go out and do something nuts. I mean, he's talking about the guy that traded for Juan Soto and traded Juan Soto. He's talking about the guy that got Fernando Tatis, Jr. for James Shields. You're talking about the guy that has acquired and traded Soto in less than two years. Correct. Yeah. It's lunacy sometimes, but, you know, that's why you can't count him out. Now we don't know what kind of shackles are on him. We have an idea. We have an idea that they're not going to go over the luxury tax and that's probably a smart thing to do. Do you have enough left in the tank to add to this team to get to the playoffs? I think the answer is yes, you do. And no one's done that better than, than taking a prospect that, that maybe it probably isn't going to pan out and, and shipping them off for a elite talent. Adam Kluge is in the chat and he is very anti trading, especially DeVries, DeVries and Salas. And maybe there's a kernel budget tendency there as well. Nothing is more appealing than cheap talent, you know, should be for certainly a team, but even the fans can understand that. I do agree with his point though when he says you traded big time prospects for a player like Juan Soto. You included James Wood in that deal. He was what? Top 10 prospect in baseball when you traded him somewhere around that high. Top 50, he was rising up there and you included him for a player like Juan Soto. There's no one Soto is available at this trade deadline. As far as we know, there's not Garrett Crochet, maybe a, you know, an electric pitcher, Derek Scooble is the, he'd probably be the closest because he's got what three years left of, of control on his deal, something like that, two plus and crochet. I think he has one. Okay. All right. Yep. Without the innings seen with Scooble that, that, that crochet has, I, again, I just don't think, I just don't think they're going to make the big heavy splash that they, they have before, which is okay. That's okay. I like what we have now. I do. I really, really do. I like what we have. And I know that they're 52 and 50 and I, I lament along with the rest of you, the suite by Colorado, you know, some of the, the, the games that got away, but I, I, this team is so much better in my eyes than that team was last year. It just is, is night and day. Ultimately, I think I hope Dennis Lynn is wrong. I don't. I do too. I don't think Garrett Crochet is worth trading someone with the potential of Leo Dallas Devries because I don't know that Garrett Crochet is going to give you that much. I know this year he's going to run out of profit based on the number of innings he's already thrown. And then next year, maybe he's great again, but he's a pitcher and we've seen pitchers oftentimes go up and down and have good seasons and then bad season. Look at a guy like Dylan Sees pretty much a stuff, but terrible season last year for the, the white Sox, even with pretty good peripherals. Maybe Greg Garrett Crochet next year is, you know, 10 and 11 with a three nine ERA and you felt like, oh, we gave up one of our top prospects for that. Are you sure he's going to be, you know, Si Young caliber? Cause I'm not. I'm not. He's, he's not. He's a guy who burst onto the scene, not, you know, years of proven track record. To me, that's too much to give up for a guy like Crochet. Yeah. So I think they're out. They've got to be out on crochet. I think so too. But nothing surprises me. Don't act surprised if something goofy happens. If you, if you act surprised, that's on you because this is what we've been, what we've been used to sneak in a couple of calls here, 833-288-097-3, Bob, you were on the earth. Thanks for holding on. Bob, welcome to Ben woods on 97-3, the fan. Good morning gentlemen. Morning. All right. Couple things really quick about your chemistry. It's, it's easily the best on the radio and you, you want, you sell yourself short. It's like, if you've ever had a chocolate chip cookie, you've got to have sugar and you've got to have salt. Yeah. Who's the sugar and all the salt? You want to have those out? And it's really screwed up. No, Ben's totally the salt. Yes. Yes. Right. I mean, so it, you know, it's not as much, but it, it balances it out. So anyway, that said, um, I don't want to see, I don't want to see the kids traded. Okay. Um, and Crochet, all I can think of is clevenger and, uh, I thought of that even more watching the nailer with his 20 bombs going, gang, that, you, that could have been our first base one that we haven't had. Bob, did you, we were just talking about this trade and the dugout on Sunday. We were, that we brought this exact thing up at the time. Were you at the time where you bummed to lose Josh Naylor? Uh, and, and I'll be honest, I was excited to get cleve because I thought he had some left in the tank and we really needed him. And boy, when we needed him, he did not come through a few different times, but I was excited at the time in hindsight, obviously bonehead move. She's still there. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. I hadn't seen enough of him, but I mean, the boy can hit and still throw him at first base. We haven't had, who is the last first base when we had that you like, wow, that was a great first base. And I'm, you, you just, good luck with that. Um, I'd probably get rid of the rides before I get rid of solace, simply because, you know, I think shortstop center fielder types like Merrill are easier to come by than, you know, than a, than an all world catcher. Yeah. Um, right. I mean, so solace is the only guy on the planet, I think that, but I think people would give up the world for him. And then to Ben's point about crochet, if you're trading, it's because you need somebody in the postseason and he's not going to be it. And, uh, but does it give you pause, does it give you pause, Bob, that the Los Angeles Dodgers would probably empty their prospect, uh, haul for Garrett crochet. Like if, if it's, if there are the freaking Dodgers, okay, and they're fine. They can, they can afford the miss. They can afford a few misses. If they miss. Oh, you know what? It wouldn't have shocked me if they'd given show, hey, 35% stake in the club, just the place. I think they would have if they could. You think, right? Yeah. So nothing, nothing does that. And the last thing, um, you know, I, I'm sure Steve is going to come up with a really clever song about bunting. I hope so. But if you, if you really want to make some serious fans in San Diego with your music, make it about retaliation after your, after your, uh, death hitters have been plunked. Yes. Bob, I have the call. The title, great call, Bob. One of my favorites. The title of that song is called blood lost. I think, um, is it possible that a rotation of Dylan C's, Garrett crochet, Michael King, just all locks in an October and they're unhittable and they carry the Padres to a world series. Yeah. It is possible. Is it more likely that the Padres are further than a Garrett crochet away from winning a world series. And you're mortgaging your future for a slight bump chance to make the playoffs. Let me just play. Defied aces in Darvish and Musgrove. It might be a different with some other help and it still wasn't enough. Yeah. Hmm. I hate tread trade deadline and I love it. Salt and sugar, Bena Woods back with one more hour. We'll add some, uh, fenugreek of Paul Reindel coming up next with the Reindel report on 97 three to fan. Well, after we just heard, uh, Jeff Passen right that, uh, Leo DeVries and Ethan Salas are off limits, get a very different opinion from someone else who covers the Padres even closer. I'll tell you what, uh, Dennis Lynn from the athletic predicts will happen here at the trade deadline and take your phone calls eight, three, three, two, eight, zero, ninety seven, three. It's Bena Woods back right after traffic here in ninety seven, three, the fan. So the athletic and their baseball team reporters all put together a little blur with a prediction of what they think, uh, the team they cover will do at the trade deadline, which is again, is one week from today and woods, Dennis Lynn writing, uh, the Padres land Garrett crochet, rendering Leo Dallas, DeVries in the process. General manager, AJ Preller has been after crochet for at least a couple of months, apparently undeterred by workload concerns surrounding the white Sox all store with stiff competition from such teams as the Dodgers and Orioles, Padres who need to fork over premium prospects, highly regarded teenage shortstop can headline a requisite package. So a very different viewpoint on what the Padres may or may not do in the next week. Undertakes in the chat, that's not me being sarcastic, which I usually am, but TN says the problem with keeping them, they're going to be in the MLB around twenty, twenty seven in between then and now, C's King Pro far Suarez, Kim Arise and Higgy will all be free agents. Padres are in need to be in win now mode, but the argument for keeping them, if you trade for crochet and others, it doesn't work out. The future is absolutely toast with no sign of return until the Machado Bogart's deals are over. I don't get that sense anymore, TN though, that, that as the window, the window we've been hearing about for many, many years and it's been open, it's been open a crack. It's been open a ton and wasn't capitalized on. One thing they've been able to do is is load up on draft choices that other teams like and they've been able to get the Dillon C's of the world. Think about how many guys have cycled through this place in the last six years of us being a show. I mean, you name it, they have always, he's always found a way to add starters, taking chances on Waka, Lugo, you know, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not as worried about five years from now because there's no guarantee. I'll even be here, you know, anybody, it just, I do think that they are in win now mode as I think most teams should try to be in as much as you possibly can. There was a chart that was going around, I think Eno shared it last week. It was, if I'm not mistaken, war generated from your own draft picks over the last 10 years. And so that really correlates with AJ Preller's tenure as general manager. And what stood out on that chart and it was also correlated with win percentage of those teams. In respect, it was a pretty kind of general graph. The more war you generated from your draft picks, the better your win percentage. So the teams that were down in the bottom left corner didn't draft well, didn't win many games. And then all the way to the top right corner teams that drafted really well and won a lot of games. And then there were two teams that stood out because the two teams that by far and away had the most war from their draft picks were the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, like there was a big gap between them and everybody else. But the Padres were kind of more in the bottom right corner. They were the only team that drafted really well that didn't translate that into a great winning percentage like the Dodgers did. So yes, you're right. AJ Preller in some ways is a top three general manager in the game doing way better than his colleagues when it comes to a massing talent. But in some ways, he's a bottom three general manager because he takes that talent and doesn't translate it to where you really have to and that is a winning record and playoff appearances and doing what the Dodgers have done. What's more valuable? I mean, I guess ultimately winning is the most valuable thing, but you're almost, if you ever, if you ever went away from AJ Preller, you're almost certainly getting way worse at the draft game because you're already right at the top with the very best in baseball. And there are times that deals come through and I go, I look at it and I go, I can't believe that they wanted this guy, this guy, this guy, you know, and, and, and I mean, I, I was, I saw a little blurb yesterday, Motorola and Marcy yesterday, it, oh, they're in Miami now. Oh, for nine, eight strikeouts. I mean, again, like you just never know what another team sees in, in a player. Some teams are, are great at developing players. We've been good at adding pieces that have helped us at least compete, you know, and stay, I guess keep eyeballs on them. He's not a great job at that. I mean, there's no question about it. The, the, the fever pitch for the San Diego potteries has never been higher and it's certainly a lot of fun to cover. I just, I try not to let myself get bogged down in what is this going to look like in five years, because again, if, if he's, if he's still here in five years, you have no idea what it's going to look like, none whatsoever, because he continues to make moves when he feels he needs to, not all of them are good, not all of them are great. JJ Cooper, who is the editor of baseball America, he's really, really good follow on Twitter, by the way, he's talking about, he says, it's trade deadline time to celebrate. I put together a team of the best prospects acquired at the deadline since 2015. Feel free to let me know who I'm too high or low on. He says some really smart teams have gotten fleeced at the deadline. The Dodgers traded away, Yordon Alvarez and O'Neill Cruz for a pair of relievers. That is the risk of going for it. But the odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. The odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. If AJ Preller had a T-shirt, that's what his T-shirt would say. The odds of regretting trading a prospect for a useful big leaguer remains low. So where would the Padres be if they traded Jackson Merrill with that? Yeah, sensibility. Which people, people were asking for Jackson Merrill and he didn't, he didn't. I mean, again, special players will, will always be special players, whether on your team or somebody else. Is Salas a special player? That's a three. A special player who can't be traded. AJ has maybe already made the decision on one or both of them. If he says to himself, these guys are too special to trade and they're off limits, then they're, they're off limits. It's up to AJ to decide whether those guys are special enough that he can't be tempted even buying, you know, a couple of years of control for a pitcher. Because ultimately, if, if they pan out, either or both of them, you're getting, I mean, if both of them pan out as, you know, above average solid big leaguers, that's 12 years at least that you control two major big league talents. What would you trade right now for 12 years of great big leaguers, anything, any team would trade anything for that. It's the most valuable thing you can have in baseball. Jackson Merrill is now one of the more valuable commodities in baseball. He's got years and years of control. He's already, he's done. He makes nothing. He makes nothing. Yeah. Those two guys could be like that or they could be like those guys that you don't regret trading because they never pan out, you got it, you got to get it right. You got to identify. Yeah, no question. No question about it. So even the, the great teams make some real, real bone head decisions, AJ's volume has just been so much more, I think than any other GM and I guess then once you have that reputation, where there's smoke, there's fire, that's more than just a reputation. That's just, that's how he does business. Now you can like it. You can love it. You're always talking about a man. You are always talking about the San Diego Padres, but every national media, everybody right now, every national media show is saying, you can't count out AJ, right? Everyone can't count out AJ Preller to go out and do something nuts. I mean, he's talking about the guy that traded for Juan Soto and traded Juan Soto. He's talking about the guy that got Fernando Tatiz Jr. for James Shields. You're talking about the guy that has acquired and traded Soto in less than two years. Correct. Yeah. Correct. It's lunacy sometimes, but you know, that's why you can't count him out. Now we don't know what kind of shackles are on him. We have an idea. We have an idea that they're not going to go over the luxury tax and that's probably a smart thing to do. Do you have enough left in the tank to add to this team to get to the playoffs? I think the answer is yes, you do. No one's done that better than taking a prospect that maybe it probably isn't going to pan out and shipping them off for an elite talent. Adam Kluge is in the chat and he is very anti-trading, especially De Vries, De Vries and Salas. And maybe there's a kernel budget tendency there as well. Nothing is more appealing than cheap talent. You know, should be for certainly a team, but even the fans can understand that. I do agree with his point though when he says you traded big time prospects for a player like Juan Soto. You included James Wood in that deal. He was what? Top 10 prospect in baseball when you traded him somewhere around there. Top 50. He was rising up there and you included him for a player like Juan Soto. There's no Juan Soto is available at this trade deadline. As far as we know, there's not. Derek Crochet may be a, you know, an electric pitcher, Derek Scooble is the, he'd probably be the closest because he's got what three years left of control on his deal, something like that. Two plus. And Crochet. I think he has one. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yep. Without the innings scene with Scooble that that that Crochet has, again, I just don't think. I just don't think they're going to make the big heavy splash that they have before, which is okay. That's okay. I like what we have now. I do. I really, really do. I like what we have and I know that they're 52 and 50 and I, I lament along with the rest of you, the suite by Colorado, you know, some of the, the, the games that got away. But I, I, this team is so much better in my eyes than that team was last year. It just is, is night and day. Ultimately, I think I hope Dennis Lynn is wrong. I don't think. I don't think Garrett Crochet is worth trading someone with the potential of Leo Dallas Devries because I don't know that Garrett Crochet is going to give you that much. I know this year he's going to run out of it based on the number of innings he's already thrown. And then next year, maybe he's great again, but he's a pitcher and we've seen pitchers oftentimes go up and down and have good seasons and then bad season. Look at a guy like Dylan Sees, pretty much a stuff, but terrible season last year for the, the white Sox, even with pretty good peripherals. Maybe Garrett Crochet next year is, you know, 10 and 11 with a three nine ERA. And you felt like, Oh, we gave up one of our top prospects for that. Are you sure he's going to be, you know, Si Young caliber? Cause I'm not, I'm not, he's, he's not, he's a guy who burst onto the scene, not, you know, years of proven track record. To me, that's too much to give up for a guy like Crochet. Yeah. So I think they're out. They've got to be out on crochet. I think so too. But nothing surprises me. Don't act surprised if something goofy happens because if you, if you act surprised, that's on you because that's, this is what we've been, what we've been used to sneaking a couple of calls here, eight, three, three, two, eight, zero, 97, three, Bob. You were on the earth. Thanks for holding on. Good morning. Good morning. All right. Couple things really quick about your chemistry. It's, it's easily the best on the radio. And you, you want, you sell yourself short. It's like, if you've ever had a chocolate chip cookie, you've got to have sugar and you've got to have salt. Yeah. Who's the sugar and all the salt? And it's really screwed up. No, that Ben's totally. Yes. Yes. Right. I mean, so it, you know, it's not as much, but it balances it out. So anyway, that said, um, I don't want to see, I don't want to see the kids traded. Um, and crochet, all I can think of is clevenger. And, uh, I thought of that even more watching Naylor with his 20 bones. Um, so it's, it's, it's not as much, but it's, it balances it out. So anyway, that said, um, I don't want to see, I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded, I don't want to see the kids traded, I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I don't want to see the kids traded. I was excited to get Clive, because I thought he had some left in the tank, and we really needed him. Boy, when we needed him, he did not come through a few different times, but I was excited at the time in hindsight. Obviously, bonehead move. Is he still there? Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. I hadn't seen enough of him, but the boy can hit and he'll throw him at first base. We haven't had -- who was the last first base when we had that you were like, "Wow, that was a great first base." You just -- good luck with that. I'd probably get rid of the rides before I get rid of Salas, simply because I think shortstop, center fielder types like Merrill are easier to come by than an all-world cat. Catcher? Yeah. Right? I mean, Salas is the only guy on the planet, I think, that -- but I think people would give up the world for him. And then to Ben's point about crochet, if you're trading, it's because you need somebody in the postseason and he's not going to be it. But does he give you pause, does he give you pause, Bob, that the Los Angeles Dodgers would probably empty their prospect hall for Garrett Crochet, like if it's -- if they're -- No, they're the freaking Dodgers. That's what they do. Okay. And they're flying. They can afford the miss. They can afford a few misses, if they miss. Oh, you know what, it wouldn't have shocked me if they'd given Show Hay 35% stake in the club, just the place. I think they would have if they couldn't. You think, right? Yeah. So nothing does that. And the last thing, you know, I'm sure Steve is going to come up with a really clever song about bunting. I hope so. But if you really want to make some serious fans in San Diego with your music, make it about retaliation after your deaf hitters have been quanted. Yes. Thanks, Bob. I have it all. The title, Great Call, Bob. One of my favorites, the title of that song is called Blood Lost. I think, is it possible that a rotation of Dylan C's, Garrett Crochet, Michael King, just all locks in in October and they're unhittable and they carry the Padres to a World Series? Yeah, it is possible. Is it more likely that the Padres are further than a Garrett Crochet away from winning a World Series and you're mortgaging your future for a slight bump chance to make the playoffs? Let me just play Defied Aces in Darvish and Musgrove with some other help and it still wasn't enough. Yeah. I hate to try to trade that line and I love it. Salt and sugar, Ben and Woods. Back with one more hour, we'll add some Fenugreek of Paul Rindell coming up next with the Rindell Report on 97.3 The Fan. 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. 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