Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
6am Hour - Could The Padres Be Interested In James Paxton?
Ben, Woods, and Paul are here for you on a Tuesday morning! We start the show with a little foreplay as the guys celebrate having a semi-viral video on TikTok yesterday. Then Ben sets the menu for today's show before we talk some Padres baseball as we're one week away from the MLB trade deadline, and the guys discuss whether or not the Padres may be interested in adding veteran starting pitcher James Paxton who was DFA'd by the dodgers yesterday? Listen here!
- Duration:
- 56m
- 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. 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. I'm not working. My mic there. I hear you. I hear you. You can hear me. I hear you. I had a great bit there. Damn it. He said, "Jukebox, here." I said, "A tick, talk, hero. Good morning, everybody. Ben and Wood's 97-3. The fan. Great to be here with you. Yeah. This has made it big time." You know, I thought when we had our own beer brew, the Tier 1 Pale Ale from Virgin, which released last Friday, I thought, "Well, this is it. This is as high as we can go." Now, Pauli has come in this morning to tell us that we are tick-tock stars right now. Yeah. And I'm feeling very, very good about that. We'll make $3 off of it. I think. I think. Actually, we'll make zero. Zero dollars off of it, which is even better. So it's just for our personal edification. I think you need like a thousand followers before you can monetize. Perfect. We'll go follow us on TikTok, please, ASAP. And yeah, we had 500 yesterday before we posted a video. Now we're up to like, I don't know, over 700 followers. Look at us, man. We are getting there. We're getting there. Yeah. We posted a clip yesterday. If you hadn't seen it, it was about Nick Castellanos. We had the story and don't do this. It was pretty innocuous. It was literally just woods reading a tweet of every time Nick Castellanos has homered after a historical event. I put it all together, packaged up, put it in a one minute video, and then put it out on Instagram, YouTube shorts, TikTok, like all of it. And boy, did that catch on on TikTok in particular. Yeah, it's great. It's great. It's nice. It's weird being a TikTok star now, but we could talk about that and then we introduce the show. I'm Woodsy and that's Paul Reindel. He's the executive producer and TikTok producer of the of the Ben & Woods program. I wouldn't even know where to log in to our TikTok. I promise you that cannot figure it out. I can't even figure out Instagram reels yet. I've worked hard on a couple and they always go to S. So I just bail on them. But Paul, he's got that stuff down. Ben Higgins is your friendly neighborhood sports anchor. You also have zero logins to really any of our stuff. You couldn't answer from the Ben & Woods X account. Don't reach out to us via TikTok. Just heads up. Yeah. Just we don't respond. I open it up, post the video and close it right back down. Hey, I'd like to welcome to the program this morning. We got a new chat member and he goes by unsaturated fats and he says, yeah, I just I'm I had my first time in the chat. Let's see how this goes. Well, welcome to the the chat. You know, keep it clean. You don't have to keep it clean. Just keep it friendly. Just be nice. You know, you don't actually don't have to keep it clean. You can get filthy in the chat. I kind of like it, but just be nice. That's really all we ask, but yeah, Carlos says, Sammy's going to come after us for messing with his turf. Yeah. I mean, that's his that is his domain, dude, TikTok, but to it is weird. I woke up this morning. I wasn't a TikTok star. And now today I am and I got to tell you, I feel a little bit different with some tide pods. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Just eating tide pods for for clout, but I feel different. This is this is what it's like. You have an interview. I did it. Oh, my God. Your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us here. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. Waiting for someone to say hello, and this is the this is what happens when you become a TikTok star. You live everybody about five minutes into the show. Yeah. You got to get rid of some of the smaller memories made to make room for the big ones. Yeah. Paul already feeling a tiny bit insecure because Paul edited an amazing video. Yeah, you're not in it for TikTok. And I'm not in it. Paul found just a small clip of himself to stick in there, but there is no bed at all. You didn't talk. You didn't say anything. You didn't go back and watch because when your coast is on a roll, you let him. I don't go. You let him go. I did the right thing. That's just your radio back. But I didn't appear in our viral TikTok video. So who's this Ben guy? Had no idea. It doesn't get introduced. He talks from the show. Yeah. Yeah. Not on any of the videos. I mean, I might as well go home at this point. No. I think I'm going to need you here. See, especially after no game last night, I'm going to go ahead and need you here. You want to log in and edit it. Yes. Please. Just by all means. From now on, just put like one still shot of his face. This is Ben, by the way. It'll be the still shot preview like when you're looking at the grid, there's all pictures of Ben. Now you did a great job on that video, man. I watched it. It was very well. I watched myself. I started. I was die laughing, dude. It was really, really well done. Everyone have a decent enough day yesterday. Ben, Pauli. It was OK. It's not great. I mean, no pottery game to look forward to. And they needed me to do what is really kind of a grunt job on television last night. What is a grunt job on television? For me, it's a. So we had a walleye. Our anchor was out in the field for the five, the six, and the seven. But when you're out in the field, there's always the possibility of technical difficulties. So they need someone back in the studio just in case, you know, the feed goes down to take over anchoring, ready, suited up, mic'd up, sitting at the anchor desk, lights are on, and I had to do that for two and a half hours, but there was never any technical difficulties. So I just sat there for two and a half hours waiting for my big moment that never came. You're kidding. Someone has to do it. I bring my laptop. I just work out on the desk, essentially, but it's not the most fun part of the job. I mean, it's not difficult, you know, just sitting out there, but I'd rather be at my own desk and not under the hot television lights for two and a half straight hours for no reason. Also, like the feeling of the impending call, it'll happen. I, you know, after about five minutes, I just stopped worrying about it. I go, they'll let me know if they need me. You're in the bullpen and you're literally just keep throwing. You're just throwing. You're just throwing for six minutes. I'm not even throwing. I'm maybe like doing the arm bands, just swinging our arms around a little bit. It's about it, you know, clearing my throat every once in a while. It's so bad. They really, they really, uh, TV is a little bit, it's a little, and listen, I say this from a position of radio, which everyone has told me since the day I started is dead and dying. Now we're doing better than we've ever done. So it's hard for me to wrap my head around the radio is dead thing. Our chat is people are commenting, people are listening. That's great. And you live for that. TV, I feel still does it a little bit weird, I think. I feel like there's a better way to streamline what it is that you do in this year of our Lord 2024. Well, we've been trying a little bit more. I, you know, as other stations, I think are doing less, we're trying to get more anchors and reporters out into the field. That's excellent. Do more local coverage, like really dive in where, you know, zig, where other stations are zagging. For sure. But it does require a couple of compromises, like sometimes someone sitting there on the desk for a couple of hours. Well, and they made, I do my part, you know, they've made a lot of changes from when we first started, when we first started this program, I was legitimately worried, I would tell Paul all the time, he's not going to make it. He, you cannot come home and get home in bed at one and then get up at 430 for this. You can't, that's not sustainable. It's not, you know, there are meth heads that can't do it. They're like, I, meth isn't even working anymore. Right. It doesn't even do anything to me. But Ben was, Ben is clean as a whistle. He doesn't do any stimulants or anything like that to keep him awake. Barely does coffee. Yeah, caffeine. But I would tell Paul, yeah, I'll tell him, like, we need to have a plan because he will, he's going to quit because nobody works nights and mornings. Nobody for any extended length of time. But in the last couple of years, when COVID hit, you've actually been able to record some stuff and then get home at a much more reasonable hour. Yes. You know, and it's definitely been better for me and us as well, as well, quit anything. That's the thing. That's the thing. You're going to, they're going to, they're going to push you out. I know. That's the thing. Yeah. More of my worry than you should be not that worried about me quitting. Well, I'm not now, I was then, then when you were getting three hours of sleep and I remember back then, I had just met Ben and it would be a Friday afternoon and I would say, I'm work cash or exhaust. We're a new show trying to get our footing under us. I'd go, so what do you got going the rest of the day, this head would drop and I'd be like, it's Friday. You don't have to work tonight. He's like, no, he's like, but Shelley wants to learn how to be a blacksmith. So we're going to blacksmith in classes after the show. And I would scream, remember, I would scream at him. Sculpt their own bowling ball. Yeah, yeah. I would scream at him. I'd be like, you get your ass all would take it down. Like, I would be young at some, he's had some stable, somewhere hammering horseshoes on a horse. He's like, well, this is super fun. I'd much rather be doing this than be asleep. I would die. I would, it killed me. We started as a show, March of 2018, Ben, what did you say it was like that up until the pandemic? Yes. Two years. One a.m. Two years. One a.m. March 10th. It was 1 a.m. and then up it, you know, well, we started at six for a while and then we went to five. We went to five. You came into five thirty. That was really hard. I came in about five twenty five, five thirty, but that was, that was the most brutal. That was incredible. Wow. It was hard. It was absolutely incredible. We, I had a man, I will tell you, I don't like to brag, but I thought yesterday, potentially, in my whole career of dadding, I think yesterday was my best day I ever had. I saw Bo winning a Gold Glove award. That was Padre's camp. That was, I take no credit for that. No, not at all. That's all him. That's all him. He puts in the work. So all I do is roll the ground. What else did you do? So got out of here, listen to this, as far as dad goes, right? Got out of here. I went straight to the gym. I got a nice, strong workout in. I went home. I kneeled prepped. I got everything laid out. I had a delicious, healthy meal. I prepped some stuff for later. Then I went to pick up Bo from camp. Then I took him to his brother's T-ball clinic and played ball with him and his buddy Jackson. And then from there, I took both kids home. I showered them, bade them, got them in their pajamas. I cooked dinner. I cleaned the kitchen and then put both kids to bed. That's about as elite of a job as I can do. When I got in bed, when I got in bed, I laid down to watch some baseball. I was like, how do single parents do this? Because if I had to do that every single day, I would die. Where was Mrs. Nan Carol Woods during this entire process? Mrs. Nan Carol Woods, she had to work yesterday and then went with her mom. Her mom's looking at a new big van, like a sprinter van. So they went to look at that. And so I was like, I got it, no problem. And I kind of liked the challenge. I don't want that challenge seven days a week. But I like the, hey, I need you to really, really crush it today. And I felt good. And I slept well. Like it was a good dad day. I chalked that one up on the big board yesterday. Nice. Take it. Hammer the skin to the wall. Once you really give up on the idea of a lot of me time, it's very freeing. You just can like just dive in and get everything done and not worry about it. I just kind of like, I said, man, I would really like to order in because she's not here. And then I go, no, I'm committed. I'm going to make them some healthy meals. I went out to the griddle, a little shrimp, little chicken, some veggies, did a nice, healthy meal. And I went to bed feeling very accomplished, very accomplished, watched some baseball, had some Twitter arguments, you know, it was just a real solid day in the woods household. I think the hypnotism is working wonders on you. You might be right. Just a better person. My mind. My mind does feel a lot more clear. And I do feel a lot more at peace and a lot more confidence, which is great. So we'll see how long it lasts. What was this? Dr. Ken? Dr. Ken was awesome. I just, I really enjoyed him and that experience in here, but yesterday was one of those days where I was like, I have beat my chest a little bit because it was really sweet to see Bo when that he was at potteries camp actually, which was really cool is out at stage coach park by Lacosta Canyon and I show up down there and the coolest thing was there were kids from teams that I've coached of Bo's that I hadn't seen in forever. They all ran up to me and gave me a big hug and talking to their dads like, do we want to, they all want to play. We all want to keep, you know, the team together and seeing these kids still out there playing baseball, warming to my heart and watching Bo, they did a deal to win the gold glove. You start with all these kids and guy rips, ground balls at it. If you bobble it or make a bad throat, you're out. Right. So it gets down to, very competitive for the year 2024, so cool. So it gets down to Bo and his best friend, Jackson are the last two remaining kids I coach. I was very proud. And Jackson booted one, Bo won, everyone jumped, dog piled him and he was like, he was on cloud nine. So it was a really cool moment and really, really sweet, really, really sweet day. So when you get that mug that says world's greatest dad, I can drink up today. You earned it today. I've got a sticker on my water jam. Best dad. Best dad. Look at that. It was a special, special day. The food is what made me the most happy because I'm, I get lazy with, you know, we have kids you're like, well, you guys want, you want Chick-fil-A, you know, you just order stuff and I go, man, I got to make a, I got to make a more committed effort to try to feed them a little bit better. So I've been, I packed their lunches as well. Like, I was really, I was pretty proud of myself. Well done. Thank you. No. Can't do it. Got it. That's the thing. You think, I think about my mom when she was a single mom, I'm like, she'd take any days off. None. There was never any days off. Paul, you had a single mom too. There's no days off, dude. No, I don't know how they do it. Laundry's got to be done. People got to get fed. Bill's got to be paid. I got to work. How do they do it? How do they do it? How do you get anywhere? Not everybody has a dad that gets off the air at 10 a.m. and can squire them around town. How do you do it? I guess I, now I'm thinking about it, I just, I walked. Walked his road. He rode bikes. I was in a walk. It was a long walk. Both six. I'm not letting him walk anywhere. He rambled off last night at Taylor's clinic. I was like, I'm going to pedophiles over there. I'm like, staring at him, like, so I don't know how you do it. But all the single parents out there, my hat's off to you. You guys are incredible. Tip my cap to you, what? Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. All right, let's get going. It is a Tuesday morning. Let's resume their longest road trip of the season. We'll set the menu for what's coming up today, including Jesse Agler, a little different time since he's on the East Coast. We'll let you know all about it when we come back right after Kelly's first check of traffic. It's Ben & Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 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. 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 I 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. 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. Go NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. Thanks for watching., I'll be honest, when I looked at the schedule a couple of weeks ago, I saw a series loss in Cleveland, a series win in Washington and a series loss in Baltimore. To be pleasantly surprised, you took 2 out of 3 in Cleveland, doesn't make this a must win. Really only gets you a game though, it only gets you a games wiggle room if you thought we were going to go 1 and 2 against Cleveland and again, 2 out of 3 against Washington would be fantastic. It's actually 2 out of 3 is kind of your bare minimum, you got to beat those guys, you do. But listen, one game at a time, you win tonight. I mean, you already swept them in San Diego, I think asking for another sweep, like a season series sweep is a lot. You take 2 out of 3, I sign up for that right now. But the reason why I say that, I mean, you're right, Paul, I mean, the season's not over if they lose this series to the Washington Nationals, but with the trade deadline coming up on Tuesday, it feels like every game this week for a bunch of teams is kind of- Yeah, it certainly shapes the direction and the conversations of the trade deadline. That's my point though, the fact that they won the series in Cleveland had to lost that series then if they lose this series, then you're like, "Oh my God, we sellers, I don't think anything's going to make the Padres turn the Padres into sellers." But there's certainly a degree, like if the Padres win the next 6 games on this road trip, which I'm not expecting, but if they did, I could see where you justify a little more aggression at the trade deadline and going after somewhat of a bigger naming, willing to deal a little bit more when it comes to the prospects. And if you go 2 and 4 on this- rest of this road trip and you're just stuck there with every other team, 9 teams fighting for 3 playoff spots, you're going, "I don't- do we really want to commit anything beyond the bare minimum to pick up more players at the trade deadline when it might not make a huge difference for us?" So that's why I feel like these games in particular just kind of steering the direction that the rest of the season might go. Yeah, I mean, it is interesting when you talk about having to get through the regular season, which is why, for me, the 162-game season will always be king, obviously. And it's why I laugh at Dodger fans sometimes when I'm like, "Bro, you took 100 games off of that 100, 100 games of having to manipulate your starters and your bullpen and the wear and tear and the travel and everything else that comes along with it." That's why it's such a grind of a season. You do feel, though, like if the playoffs started today and the Padres were in it, bro, you look and you go, "All right, I've got a healthy Waldron, a healthy king and a healthy seas. Let's ride. Let's absolutely ride. I feel like we are winning that first short series." Now, you get to the next series? Yeah, you might have a problem in game four, but you take your chances, man. They have a good team. They have a good team that's hungry. They have a good team that battles. They have a good team that can hit. They have a team that can run, that can play defense. Like nobody wants this team in the first round if the playoffs started today. Period. And I saw somebody tweet yesterday, "If we really need to go out and get two starters and a bullpen piece, are we really a playoff team?" My answer is yes, absolutely, because there's a ton of teams right now, luckily, that built up a really big cushion, and they're looking for two starters. They're looking for bullpen help. Yes, the answer is yes, yes, yes. What do you have in front of you? You have a team that has shown the ability to come back, the team that has shown the ability to create runs where there weren't any, yes, if you get in, they can absolutely do damage. I think that you add 100% to this team. Do you think they need one starter and one reliever? And then weren't we kind of told or led to believe at least that you, Darvish, would let AJ and company know, because if he says, like, "Hey, I'm looking like I could come back here in a couple of weeks," then maybe you don't need to go out and get that second starter. I think what he did, regardless, is he like, would he be the third starter if Darvish is like, "I'm probably not coming back this year." You know, I don't, there's no, when you're on the restricted list, he's under no obligation. I believe the report I heard, if I don't want to speak out of school here, but yes, he would be in communication. He hasn't disappeared. I'm sure he's been in communication with him. He's grown up. Yeah. They're having somewhat regular communication. I promise you. I guarantee you. He's just an email. Sure. He hasn't just fallen off the face of the planet. Right. Okay, you know, whatever's going on, I won't be pitching this year. Does that mean they need to add a second starter mix or is that the third starter to the mix? Probably a second. I would think if you think Musgrove is coming back, you could probably get by if you're lucky with one more starter because then you still have Randy Vasquez as a sixth starter at that point. You could get by. If you get you back, then you've got some depth of riches and maybe you doesn't even know. That's the thing. I don't think it's that you is just stringing them along. He may not know if he can come back or not and the Padres will have to just make their decisions based on the best information that they have. Tien on the chat says, you know, by deal a little bit more. Do you mean Salas or DeVries because the Padres want crochet or scuba? One of those two would be included. I don't know if there's a mandate that they can't or won't trade those guys or if it's possible, one or both could be on the table for the right deal. But that is exactly what I'm talking about increasing your offer, you know, pot committing yourself a little bit more to this season rather than say, maybe it would be better to wait until next year when we could be healthier, when we could be in a better position than we are this year and we have more time to develop those two guys. One or both of who may turn out to be great major league baseball players and we'll never know if we trade them now. Well, we might know, but certainly won't know in our organization, so those guys are rentals either. It's not just for this year. Who? Like scuba. You have them for like three more years. Yeah, yeah. It's scuba and crochet both have years of control left. So yeah, but I mean, it's tough man. It's tough. I watched Ethan Salas and I believe in Ethan Salas. I really, Leo's, Leo has moved to the top of the heap for me after the July that he's had, after his slow start, watching what he's been able to do, he's, he's a, he's an electric type player. It feels a little like the Tetis path, you know, when, once he broke out in the minor leagues, it was, watch out, this is a rocket ship, even more so than Salas at this point, just what he's been able to do and the eyes that he's opening in the minor leagues. Pretty impressive. We got to take a quick time out. We will continue the pod race talk here for the previewing the series against the Washington Nationals potential arm out there to go look at some interesting news one week away from the trade deadline in Major League Baseball in the NL West. We'll get to that coming up then in our seven o'clock hour take on Woods and don't do this. And Jesse Agler, a little bit earlier at 735 today, joining us from Washington DC with the Incorporated first appearance of the second half of the season for the voice of the pod race first half of the show and then second half of the show, we may have a chance to take some calls from pod race fans and our eight o'clock hour rindle report and we're going to give away some more Sebastian Maniscalco comedy tickets coming up at 9 20. So stay tuned for all of that. It's Ben and Woods. We'll be right back on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three the fan. If you think we spend our breaks talking about which pitchers the Padres might acquire the trade deadline. We do. Yeah. Like consumes me every year at the trade deadline. I know that I mean the speculation is sometimes a little bit silly because we don't know any better than than you do out there who AJ Preller is actually talking to or targeting targeting. But you know, he's talking to everybody. He's targeting everybody. That's how he that's how he operates. So there's literally not one. I don't think there's one trade that could absolutely shock me anymore. No, I've been shocked a few times by AJ Preller and Gunnar Henderson. It would shock me like, oh, the Padres acquire Gunnar Henderson. It would shock you because you wouldn't ever think the Baltimore Orioles would. They wouldn't trade them. But like Max Scherzer, fine. He's found a creative way to make it work financially and yeah work. I mean, wouldn't surprise me at all. Schoolable, of course, crochet. It could happen, you know, the dozen other guys, 30 other guys. It's going to be hard to surprise me at this trade deadline. The only thing that would have truly surprised me is if we did absolutely nothing. That would be the one thing that surprised the hell out of me. They do nothing. They just totally stand pat. And I think you're absolutely right because there's no reason to do nothing. Correct. The trade deadline. You can't do nothing. In fact, there's there's an intriguing. AJ Preller ever done nothing. Nothing. There's an intriguing name out there where you basically don't have to do anything right now. Yeah. That right after a check of traffic here on 97.3 the fam. So yesterday, the Dodgers made a move that surprised some people, including a lot of Dodger fans when they designated pitcher James Paxton for assignment and you think, well, what? Probably had a is a veteran over the hill. He's had a rough season. Right? Not exactly. He's he's eight and two with an ERA in the mid four, certainly not a side young award winner. He's gotten tons of run support, but the Dodgers have done well. In his starts, and he's been durable. He's made every start that they've needed him to this season. The only Dodgers pitcher to do so. He's a commodity that other teams would, you know, sell their, their pinky toe for a pitcher, a durable pitcher who's eaten a few innings every five days, the entire course of the season and giving his team at least a chance to win in every game. Funny you say that. Their record with him on the bump starting is 14 and four. Now again, again, the peripherals on James Paxton are not good. Now, when I was lying in bed the other night watching Dodgers, Red Sox, the recency bias bug crawled up my, my arm and bit me on the neck. I watched his start and they were marveling at his start because for no reason, I mean, his fastball sits 93, he was pumping 96, 97 that night and, and carved up a really good Boston Red Sox lineup just carved him up and everything was working. So after his probably, well, he had a really, really nice start early in the season, but after his best, most recent start, they send him back in the next day because they've got crowd are all coming off. They've got Kershaw coming off. They had River Ryan, glass nose coming back tomorrow again, not Bueller's should be coming back soon. They have an embarrassment of riches as it stands. You know, and finally they've had a lot of guys injured, but they've got guys coming back now. They just didn't have room for him. And so they, they DFA'd him and it's a tough, you know, it's a tough business, man. I mean, the guy goes out and has his probably best start of the year and he's out of a job the next day, but one man's trash is another man's treasure. Now again, James Paxton is not the guy that puts this team over the edge. And if they pick up James Paxton and do nothing else, I'm going to be pretty disappointed. That being said, I watched his start. He looked nasty. He's made every start. He averages five innings per start in 18 starts. He's exactly it like 90 innings. So he's somebody that can eat those innings that you don't want Michael King to be overused. Well, and yeah, poly six man rotation time, essentially, something to that effect. But I don't know, I don't know if there's a next level to James Paxton. I don't know that he's not, in my opinion, one of those guys that would come here and Ruben would say, Oh, let me get him in the lab and, you know, but I just know what I saw. I know I saw a guy going four miles an hour above his, his average fastball and looking quite comfortable doing it against a really good team. So I think you have to take a look at that. The biggest argument against him is, of course, the Dodgers let him go. Correct. Why do you let a commodity that's worth anything just go if you had any faith in him? And that's a red flag. I mean, that's admittedly a big red flag on James Paxton. Yeah. But maybe, you know, the Dodgers, as you said, just have no spot for him and too many resources at the moment. People comparing him to Dick Mountain and Dick Mountain throws 83 miles an hour. You know, this guy was again, I'm telling you, uh, I watched it the other night. Again, I'm not saying like this is a, a guy that, that you have to have, but if you need somebody to eat some innings, he's cheap and he's there and he's healthy and ready to go. The, uh, the list of teams that are sellers is finally expanding a little bit. They grew by one yesterday when the Cubs essentially wave the white flag on the season publicly when a GM Jed Hoyer said that any trades they make at the deadline will not be designed to improve the team the rest of this season, but they will be with an eye on 2025 and beyond, essentially saying, yeah, we are open for business selling players, trying to acquire prospects, younger talent, guys with control beyond this year to help us in the future, which is, uh, you know, if I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and you went and spent the most money ever on a manager going into this season after a surprisingly winning season last year, it's not the news I was looking to hear in July, but because they did, those are now some names that are available, not a ton of pitching names, but, uh, Jameson Tyone is kind of a starter that, that could be on the block and then, uh, relievers, which the Padres need as well. Mark Leiter Jr, former top prospect, Hector Neris and Tyson Miller are guys that are being mentioned as possible, uh, pitching trade ships from the Chicago Cubs. And who are the ones you just, uh, listed when we saw when we went to break from the Texas Rangers? They're talking about it as a team that's going to be very instrumental at the trade deadline. I had a few names, including old friend Kirby Yates, uh, was on that list. Uh, I think there was a couple of other relievers. Max Scherzer was on the list, um, uh, Haney and Haney was on the list. There were some pitchers there for sure, uh, so the Rangers are a team to look at as well as the Cubs now, uh, dealing pitching and looking like, you know, in a good spot with all the teams that need to acquire it, they're ready to perhaps, uh, you know, try to cash in on something right now. Do we not think that AJ Peller will add a Texas Ranger to this roster? At some point, he gets far enough away that there's no one left in that organization that, you know, he used to know everybody and he knew the ins and outs of the Texas Rangers organization. It's been 10 years since he's been there. Yeah, I know. But we still add Texas Rangers whenever we can, but there should be going less and less in the future. Say you should be. There's no reason why AJ would have any more affinity for Texas Rangers at this point. I get it. The first five, six years, absolutely, but now why would you have more affinity for the Texas Rangers? Yeah. Yeah. The GM you worked with is gone. I don't know why you were. But you could. It's gone just because they wore a Texas Rangers uniform makes no sense. Sign them up. But if they're available, I'm sure AJ is calling and asking about them. Uh, all right. Now, pod race opened their series against the Washington Nationals today and I cannot, for the life of me, find a pitching matchup other than Randy Vasquez for the pod race. Have you seen that confirmed? I couldn't find one. I saw Randy Vasquez. Well, the pod race was confirmed there. He said it's Vasquez Waldron cease for the first three games. Okay. So they're skipping over the number five spot. Thanks to the off day yesterday and they're going to go with those three guys nationals, even today, website, nothing, nothing listed, nothing listed on ESPN. That's probably a good sign if you're the pod race, go out, I mean, you know, they bring some kid up. Nobody's ever seen. We've seen how that's gone before. They go with a bolt. They go with an opener of hard throw, you know, it's just that I always like to know what I can expect when I'm watching a game. But Davey Martinez being a little cagey right now, perhaps Benny or just really not having any idea what they're going to do. They may be working on trades and stuff as well. They're a team that's probably going to be sellers. So you just, it's that time of year, man, where expect the unexpected is the best advice I can give you. Now we do know they'll be facing old, you know, pod race prospects and CJ Abrams who went to the all-star game. And now James Wood who was promoted just a couple of weeks ago, hit his second home run of the season on Sunday, a big one, a tie-breaking three-run shot to help the Nationals sweep the Cincinnati Reds and they're doing a lot of James Wood peaches and pieces and talking about him. He's kind of the flavor of the moment thinking this, you know, guy could be a big star for the Washington Nationals. So there'll be a lot of talk about James Wood in this series over the next three days considering where he came from, from the San Diego Padres in the Juan Soto Trail. Sure. I'm excited to see him play. I've never, you know, I saw his like first AB at the big league level. Hopefully he doesn't torch us, but again, the guy with that kind of power in that lineup is a guy that you just try to avoid at all costs, right? You don't need to, you don't need to treat him like primary bonds, but a guy that has that much pop in his bat, that much slug, you know, pitch around him, pitch, don't let him get you, you know, at the end of the day. So the rest of the lineup doesn't overly concern me. We've seen that. We've seen that a really good series against the Padres and the Padres swept that series against the Nationals last month. Yeah. He said OPS of 819 right now, he's got 15 bombs. James Wood hitting 246 two bombs, 673 OPS, he's got 72 at bats in his young major league career. And will we see Gore this week? I don't know. I'm assuming we will. They have not again announced anything pitching so far for the series. So it's, it's remains up in the air. What they're going to face. Right. Well, be ready. Will we see any holdover from the fireworks that we saw at Pekko Park? I can't imagine that there will be. I did see a Nationals fan tweeting yesterday, something to the effect of, well, the players haven't forgotten and I'm still, I'm, I'm still again, we laid it out nice and neat for you the next day. We never hit any of their players. We never, you know, we didn't do anything. We celebrated on our home field after a walkoff. That's, that's what. I'm sure the Nationals would love to celebrate our home field and, and if they do, guess what I'll say on the air. Congratulations. Well done. Nice walkoff. I don't care if you look to the Padres dug out and give you the, the air thrust man. You're at home. You know, especially if Robert Suarez comes in and goes 97 under somebody's chin, knocks him on his ass. That's why he hits a walkoff home run. Have a ball, man. What a moment. Congratulations. You're at your home ballpark. Do whatever you want. But I thought it was squashed at the time and I expect it to be squashed now. Now I'm, listen, the first one that goes inside on somebody may, may start to, to get the haunches up a little bit, but I just, I thought this thing was dead in the water. You know, we didn't go into the, the, the stands and scream at old people like, like they did when they were here. Richie Winker just crapped himself the entire time he was here. And they, they took their eye off the ball when they were here in Sandy, they needed that win that. See her in the Padres. Badly. No reason for wanting to get any, I mean revenge. No one thought that McKenzie Gore actually threw at jerks and pro far. They were just mad at the timing of it and the fact that he wasn't ejected. I thought he threw at him. You did. Yeah. 100%. No. Unquestionably. Like I, yeah. And what better place to throw didn't he? Like show publicly. My show publicly doesn't think he did. But I absolutely think he threw 96 at his ankles. I absolutely think he did. Well, he did for a 96. Yeah. Yeah. I think he did it on purpose. So yeah, I don't expect any, any carryover. I really don't. I thought it was handled. I actually thought it was handled well after it all ended. Fine. No problem. Move on. This is, this is a, it's a good cautionary tale, right? Because when the Washington Nationals came in here, they were, they were playing pretty well. And they 100% took their eye off the ball, that entire series and they let jerks and pro far get in their dome for three games, for three games and the Padres won them all. The Padres need to remember that this is a way more important series for them right now. Keep your eye on the prize. You don't have to hit anybody at all. Just try to win these ball games. That's the only thing that matters. Right. I did find they have announced a couple of pitchers for the next two games, just not today. So I will give you those and we can play some take on woods when we come back with our second hour of Ben and Woods. Don't go away. More on the way on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3 the fan. If you think we spend our breaks talking about which pitchers the Padres might acquire the trade deadline. We do. Yeah. Like consumes me every year at the trade deadline. I know that, uh, I mean the speculation is sometimes a little bit silly because we don't know any better than, than you do out there who AJ Preller is actually talking to or targeting, targeting. But you know he's talking to everybody, he's targeting everybody. That's how he, that's how he operates. So there's literally not one, I don't think there's one trade that could absolutely shock me anymore. No, I've been shocked a few times by AJ Preller and Gunnar Henderson, it would shock me like, no, the Padres acquire Gunnar Henderson. It would shock you because you, you wouldn't ever think the Baltimore Orioles would. And they wouldn't trade them. But like Max Scherzer, fine. He's found a creative way to make it work financially and yeah, work, I mean, wouldn't surprise me at all. Schoolable. Of course, crochet, it could happen, you know, the dozen other guys, 30 other guys. It's going to be hard to surprise me at this trade deadline. The only thing that would have truly surprised me is if we did absolutely nothing. That would be the one thing that surprised the hell out of me. They do nothing. They just totally stand pat. And I think you're absolutely right because there's no reason to do nothing. Correct. The trade deadline. You can't do nothing. In fact, there's, there's an intriguing... As AJ Preller ever done nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There's an intriguing name out there where you basically don't have to do anything right now. Yeah. That right after a check of traffic here on 97.3, the fam. So yesterday, the Dodgers made a move that surprised some people, including a lot of Dodger fans. When they designated pitcher James Paxton for assignment and you think, well, what? He probably had a, he's a veteran over the hill. He's had a rough season, right? Not exactly. He's eight and two with an ERA in the mid four. Certainly not a Cy Young award winner. He's gotten tons of run support, but the Dodgers have done well in his starts and he's been durable. He's made every start that they've needed him to this season. The only Dodgers pitcher to do so. He's a commodity that other teams would, you know, sell their, their pinky toe for a pitcher, a durable pitcher who's eaten a few innings every five days, the entire course of the season and giving his team at least a chance to win in every game. But funny, you say that their record with him on the bump starting is 14 and four. Now again, again, the peripherals on James Paxton are not good. Now when I was lying in bed the other night watching Dodgers, Red Sox, the recency bias bug crawled up my, my arm and bit me on the neck, I watched his start and they were marveling at his start because for no reason, I mean, his fastball sits 93. He was pumping 96, 97 that night and carved up a really good Boston Red Sox lineup, just carved him up and everything was working. So after his probably, well, he had a really, really nice start early in the season, but after his best most recent start, they send him back in the next day because they've got grader all coming off. They've got a Kershaw coming off. They had River Ryan, glass nose coming back tomorrow again, not Mueller's should be coming back soon. They have an embarrassment of riches as it stands. You know, and finally they've, they've had a lot of guys injured, but they've got guys coming back now. They just didn't have room for him. And so they, they DFA'd him and it's a tough, you know, it's a tough business, man. I mean, the guy goes out and has his probably best start of the year and he's out of a job the next day, but one man's trash is another man's treasure. Now again, James Paxton is not the guy that puts this team over the edge. And if they pick up James Paxton and do nothing else, I'm going to be pretty disappointed. That being said, I watched his start. He looked nasty. He's made every start. He averages five innings per start in 18 starts. He's exactly it like 90 innings. So he's somebody that can eat those innings that you don't want Michael King to be overused. Well, and yeah, Paul, six man rotation time, essentially something to that effect. But I don't know, I don't know if there's a next level to James Paxton. I don't know that he's not, in my opinion, one of those guys that would come here and Ruben would say, oh, let me get him in the lab. And, you know, but I just know what I saw. I know I saw a guy going four miles an hour above his, his average fastball and looking quite comfortable doing it against a really good team. So I think you have to take a look at that. The biggest argument against him is, of course, the Dodgers let him go. Correct. Why do you let a commodity that's worth anything just go if you had any faith in him? And that's a red flag. I mean, that's admittedly a big red flag on James Paxton. Yeah. But maybe, you know, the Dodgers, as you said, just have no spot for him and too many resources at the moment. And people comparing him to Dick Mountain and Dick Mountain throws 83 miles an hour. You know, this guy was again, I'm telling you, I watched it the other night. Again, I'm not saying like this is a guy that, that you have to have, but if you need somebody to eat some innings, he's cheap and he's there and he's healthy and ready to go. The list of teams that are sellers is finally expanding a little bit. It grew by one yesterday when the Cubs essentially wave the white flag on the season publicly when GM Jedhoyer said that any trades they make at the deadline will not be designed to improve the team the rest of this season, but they will be with an eye on 2025 and beyond essentially saying, yeah, we are open for business selling players, trying to acquire prospects, younger talent, guys with control beyond this year to help us in the future, which is, you know, if I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and you went and spent the most money ever on a manager going into this season after a surprisingly winning season last year, it's not the news I was looking to hear in July, but because they did, those are now some names that are available, not a ton of pitching names, but Jamison Tyone is kind of a starter that could be on the block and then relievers, which the Padres need as well. Mark Leiter Jr, former top prospect, Hector Nerus and Tyson Miller are guys that are being mentioned as possible pitching trade ships from the Chicago Cubs. And who are the ones you just listed when we saw when we went to break from the Texas Rangers? The Rangers, they were talking about it as a team that's going to be very instrumental at the trade deadline. I had a few names, including old friend Kirby Yates was on that list. I think there was a couple of other relievers. Max Scherzer was on the list, Haney, and Haney was on the list. There were some pitchers there for sure. So the Rangers are a team to look at as well as the Cubs now, dealing pitching and looking like, you know, in a good spot with all the teams that need to acquire it, they're ready to perhaps, you know, try to cash in on something right now. Do we not think that AJ Peller will add a Texas Ranger to this roster? At some point, he gets far enough away that there's no one left in that organization that, you know, he used to know everybody and he knew the ins and outs of the Texas Rangers organization. It's been 10 years since he's been there. Yeah, I know. But we still add Texas Rangers whenever we can, but there should be going less and less in the future. Say you should be. There's no reason why AJ would have any more affinity for Texas Rangers at this point. I get it. The first five, six years, absolutely, but now why would you have more affinity for the Texas Rangers? Yeah. Yeah. The GM you worked with is gone. I don't know why you were. But you could. It's gone just because they wore a Texas Rangers uniform makes no sense. Sign them up. But if they're available, I'm sure AJ is calling and asking about them. All right. Now, Padres opened their series against the Washington Nationals today, and I cannot, for the life of me, find a pitching matchup other than Randy Vasquez for the Padres. Have you seen? Is that confirmed? I couldn't find one. I saw Randy Vasquez. Well, the Padres have confirmed there. He said it's Vasquez Waldron Sees for the first three games. So they're skipping over the number five spot. Thanks to the off day yesterday, and they're going to go with those three guys nationals. Even today, upside nothing, nothing listed, nothing listed on ESPN. That's probably a good sign if you're the Padres go out. I mean, you know, they bring some kid up. Nobody's ever seen. We've seen how that's gone before. They go with a bolt. They go with an opener of hard throw, you know, it's just that I always like to know what I can expect when I'm watching a game. But Davey Martinez being a little cagey right now, perhaps Benny, or just really not having any idea what they're going to do. They may be working on trades and stuff as well. They're a team that's probably going to be sellers. So you just, it's that time of year, man, where expect the unexpected is the best advice I can give you. Now we do know they'll be facing old, you know, Padres prospects and CJ Abrams who went to the all-star game. Now James Wood, who was promoted just a couple of weeks ago, hit his second home run of the season on Sunday, a big one, a tie-breaking three-run shot to help the Nationals sweep the Cincinnati Reds and they're doing a lot of James Wood features and pieces and talking about him. He's kind of the flavor of the moment thinking this, you know, guy could be a big star for the Washington Nationals. So there'll be a lot of talk about James Wood in this series over the next three days considering where he came from, from the San Diego Padres and the Juan Soto Trio. Sure. I'm excited to see him play. I've never, you know, I saw his like first A.B. at the big league level. Hopefully he doesn't torch us, but again, the guy with that kind of power in that lineup is a guy that you just try to avoid at all costs, right? You don't need to, you don't need to treat him like primary bonds, but a guy that has that much pop in his bat, that much slug, you know, pitch around him, pitch, don't let him get you, you know, at the end of the day. So the rest of the lineup doesn't overly concern me. We've seen that. We've said a really good series against the Padres. Yeah. The Padres swept that series against the Nationals last month. Yeah. He said O.P.S. of 819 right now, he's got 15 bombs, James Wood hitting 246, two bombs, 673 O.P.S. He's got 72 at bats in his young Major League career and will we see Gore this week? I don't know. I'm assuming we will. They have not again announced anything pitching so far for the series. So it's, it's remains up in the air. What they're going to face. All right. Well, be ready. Will we see any holdover from the fireworks that we saw at Pekko Park? I can't imagine that there will be. I did see a Nationals fan tweeting yesterday something to the effect of, well, the players haven't forgotten and I'm still, I'm, I'm still again, we laid it out nice and neat for you the next day. We never hit any of their players. We never, you know, we didn't do anything. We celebrated on our home field after a walk off. That's what the Padres did. I'm sure the Nationals would love to celebrate our home field and if they do, guess what I'll say on the air. Congratulations. Well done. Nice walk off. I don't care if you look to the Padres dug out and give you the air thrust man, you're at home, you know, especially if Robert Suarez comes in and goes 97 under somebody's chin, knocks him on his ass. Then the guy hits a walk off home run. Have a ball, man. What a moment. Congratulations. That's the whole part. Do whatever you want, but I thought it was squashed at the time and I expect it to be squashed now. Now I'm, listen, the first one that goes inside on somebody may, may start to get the haunches up a little bit, but I just, I thought this thing was dead in the water. You know, we didn't go into the, the, the stands and scream at old people like, like they did when they were here. Jesse Winker just crapped himself the entire time he was here and they took their eye off the ball when they were here in Sandy. They needed that win that seer in the pottery, sadly. No reason for wanting to get any, I mean revenge. No one thought that Mackenzie Gore actually threw at jerks and pro far. They were just mad at the timing of it and the fact that he wasn't ejected. I thought he threw at him. You did. Yeah. 100%. No doubt. Unquestionably. Like I, yeah. And what better place to throw didn't he. Mike shilt publicly. Mike shilt publicly doesn't think he did, but I absolutely think he threw 96 at his ankle balls. I absolutely think he did. Well, he did for 96. Yeah. Yeah. I think he did it on purpose. So yeah, I don't expect any, any carryover. I really don't. I thought it was handled. I actually thought it was handled well after it all ended. Fine. No problem. Move on. This is, this is a, it's a good cautionary tale, right? Because when the Washington Nationals came in here, they were, they were playing pretty well. Like 100% took their eye off the ball, that entire series, and they let jerks and pro for getting their dome for three games, for three games and the Padres won them all. The Padres need to remember that this is a way more important series for them right now. Keep your eye on the prize. You don't have to hit anybody at all. Just try to win these ball games. That's the only thing that matters. I did find they have announced a couple of pitchers for the next two games, just not today. So I will give you those and we can play some take on Woods when we come back with our second hour of Ben & Woods. Don't go away. More on the way on San Diego's number one sports station, 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? 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